Bravo, AMV BBDO. Libresse/Bodyform may be a very brave brand in tackling the taboo of menstruation but AMV BBDO is making sure that its work grabs and holds the attention of both its target audience, women, and the “problem” audience – society at large. It defies coyness – points fingers where it should, illustrates with the uncomfortable visuals that it needs to and reveals “restricted” information that women have needed to know. The partners have also created a riveting commercial that breaks the creative boundaries of feminine hygiene advertising – empathetic, informative and fun – yes, fun, to watch. This work should change the world for woman.
The new work, Never Just a Period, highlights the dissonance between what women+ are taught to expect, and the reality of their menstrual experiences, showing the unsettling and absurd experience of having so little knowledge about their own bodies. Covering first periods, to surprising discharge smells, to pain being dismissed by doctors, the campaign aims to initiate an open conversation and education around menstrual health throughout women+’s lives.
Central to the campaign is a film about how painfully unprepared women+ are for a life inside their bodies, highlighting centuries of terrible education, lack of research and knowledge, and years of dismissing and minimising women+’ health problems. The 2.25 minute film, directed by Netflix hit show, Eric, director, Lucy Forbes, through SMUGGLER, uses comedy and hyperbolic mixed-media to poke fun at the strange experience of inhabiting a body without the proper knowledge – from first periods to surprising discharge smells, to mind-boggling tampon manuals.
It is scored by a female only Greek chorus-inspired orchestra responding to the ups, the downs, and the ouches, that helps to create a sense of collectivity and community. Women+ are experiencing it all together and reacting and responding together in many ways – even though it can so often feel like they’re the only person going through it. Ultimately, the ad is a rallying cry to share knowledge and encourages women+ to talk openly about their experiences. “What do you wish you’d been told?” it asks, hoping to start conversations.
In its mission to dynamite shame around women’s sexual functioning, Libresse / Bodyform has been tracking the perception and prejudice of taboos globally through its Global V-Taboo Tracker** since 2020. The deep study has listened to 10,000 people across 10 countries, exploring not only all stages of menstrual life in relation to taboos, but all dimensions of women+’s menstrual experiences, from attitudes to behaviours, knowledge, exposure and emotions.
The new data reveals that more than half (59%) of those who menstruate wish they’d been taught more about their periods and intimate health. The campaign highlights the lifetime of confusion women+ go through from first period to last, because the systemic and societal taboos and attitudes which minimise and dismiss women+’s experiences, especially in medical settings, and the result that so many women+ are not properly taught about their own bodies.
Never Just a Period work as a reality check about what women+ actually go through without being properly prepared. Some of the shocking insights into women+’s experiences include:
- Only 1 in 5 of those who menstruate felt ‘calm and ready’ to start their first period
- 2 in 5 (42%) of those who menstruate feel the knowledge of their cycle has ‘lots of gaps’
- 90% of those who menstruate know little to nothing about perimenopause
- Only 2 in 5 of those who menstruate have felt comfortable enough to talk to their healthcare professional about their menstrual health.
Women+ are spending whole lifetimes with more questions than answers around their own bodies.
Tanja Grubner, global marketing and communications director at Essity, commented, “We’ve been challenging toxic stereotypes around periods for almost a decade and while progress has been made, our mission is on-going. Our global taboo tracking helps us shine a light on the topics that matter to women+ across the globe. The results show that there is still a huge amount to do to set women+ up for a healthy and informed relationship with their bodies. We’re committed to closing the knowledge gap and continue to support better education for children through more open conversation, so girls+ can have a healthy relationship with periods and their bodies. Because it’s Never Just a Period.”
AMV BBDO chief creative officers, Nadja Lossgott and Nicholas Hulley, added, “It’s never just a period, is the emotional and creative ground zero of thousands and thousands of years of dissonance between what women+ are told about their periods and what they actually experience. Because one thing is for sure. It’s never been ‘just’ a period. And it’s definitely not ‘just’ you.”
Lauren Peters and Augustine Cerf, the AMV BBDO creative team behind the work, stated, “The film stages many not talked about, yet not uncommon experiences, like getting a period whilst breastfeeding, periods not coming back for months after stopping contraception, and large clots during perimenopause – all things that we’d have expected if only somebody had told us. The campaign plays its small part in representing these experiences while also touching on the big systemic and societal issues which stand between women+ and better knowledge about their own bodies. Whether it’s pain being minimised and dismissed in medical contexts and being told it’s ‘just a period’, when it’s always, always so much more.”
The campaign is global with a diverse array of content, ranging from 6 seconds to 2 minutes, that will run across digital, social platforms and TV. In total, over 100 unique assets have been crafted for this multi-channel push.
Libresse / Bodyform’s previous campaigns to remove taboo’s around women’s sexual functioning include Blood Normal (the first period ad to ever show actual red blood instead of blue liquid), Viva La Vulva, Womb Stories, and Periodsomnia.
Credits:
Client: Essity [Libresse / Bodyform]
Client Team: Tanja Grubner & Luciana de Azevedo Lara
Creative Agency: AMV BBDO
CCOs & Creative Directors: Nicholas Hulley & Nadja Lossgott
Creative Team: Lauren Peters & Augustine Cerf
Creative Design Director: Vanessa Fowler Kendall
Designer: Dian Sofia
Agency Planning Team: Margaux Revol & Summer Taylor
Agency Account Team: Henrietta Corley, Victoria Norrington, Semran Kooner & Louise Mather
Agency Producer: Rebecca Sharf
Junior Producer: Lilli Burridge Payne
Media Agency: Zenith
Production Company: SMUGGLER
Director: Lucy Forbes
Executive Producer: Lucy Kelly
Producer: Claire Jones
Production Manager: Ellie Sanders Wright
Casting Director: Ali Fearnley
Service Company: Emote Films
Executive Producer: Bogdan Petković
Line Producer: Marija Marković
Post-production Company: Framestore
Creative Director: Sharon Lock
Producer: Sara Beckman
VFX Supervisor: Murray Butler
FX: Philip Child
2D Character animation: Jocie Juritz
Flame Lead: Andy Salter
Flame: Paul O’Brien and Vinny David
Nuke Artists: Aitor Echeveste and Hakon Loberg
Design: Sharon Lock, Craig Maxwell, Charlie Keeper, Jack Field & Daniella Marsh
Production Coordinator: Rachel Knight
Production Assistant: Jamie Scott
Head of Data Services: Madeleine Haydon
Grade: Cheat
Producer: Sarah Banks
Colourist: Toby Tomkins
Music: Soundtree
Founder & Composer: Peter Raeburn
Music Arrangers: Luke Fabia, Benjamin Jones, Luis Almau & Peter Raeburn
Music Supervisors: Jay James & Colin McIlhagga
Edit: Tenthree
Producers: Ed Hoadley & Rachel Googder
Editors: Ellie Johnson, Elena De Palma & Liam Bachler
Assistant Editor: Ella Oliver
Stop-Frame Animator: Anna Mantzaris
Sound Studio: 750mph
Producers: Olivia Ray & Carla Thomas
Sound Engineer: Sam Ashwell & Giselle Hall
DOP: Polly Morgan
Photographer: Aleksandra Martinovic
PR Agency: Ketchum UK
PR Team: Ramona Aning & Becky Hudson
