9 out of 10 women sat they try to hide their periods. 56% of girls said they’d rather be bullied at school than talking to their patents about periods. These are two of the results of a survey of 10,000 women by Essity, the maker of Bodyform (Libresse),
Advertising for sanitary protection products has come a long way, but it is still constrained by still taboos.
Essity has been working hard to remove the stigma of periods. In May last year, Bodyform ran an ad that showed blood on women and in August, an ad that showed blood on a pad in underpants.
AMV BBDO has now launched a two and a half minute online film for Libresse called #bloodnormal, that defies all the taboos. It began running on October 17 on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and programmatic placements. The film is series of vignettes that aim to emphasise how normal periods are – so they include blood running down a woman’s leg in the shower, real blood being poured onto a pad, an out-of-office auto-reply that says someone’s not coming into the office because she has a very heavy period and a boy passing a pad to a girl in class.
The ad ends with a scene that was deemed unacceptable to be shown on TV and the message, Periods are normal. Showing them should be too. 20 second TV edits vary from one country to another to accommodate restrictions.
Nicholas Hulley & Nadja Lossgott, creative partners at AMV BBDO, commented, “As the film shows, while we have tackled some taboos, there is still so much more to be done. You make things normal by making them normal. And you break taboos by pushing against them.”
Libresse and Bodyform will also be funding three more short films that openly reference periods in its quest to normalise periods in throughout the world. These will be made by aspiring filmmakers and the brands are working with production company, Flare Studio, to provide grants to filmmakers to make them.
Tanja Grubner, global marketing & communications director at Essity, commented, “Periods are a normal part of life, but are largely ignored by mainstream media. They simply don’t feature in the representation of female characters that we see every day. As a leader in feminine hygiene, we want to challenge the stigma around periods. We believe that like any other taboo, the more people see it, the more normal the subject becomes. We want to lead the way with a campaign that tackles the taboo head on by positively showing periods in action in everyday life truthfully and honestly – because we feel it’s the right thing to do for society.”
Credits:
Creative Agency: AMV BBDO
Executive Creative Directors: Alex Grieve & Adrian Rossi
Creative Directors: Toby Allen & Jim Hilson
Copywriter: Nicholas Hulley
Art Director: Nadja Lossgott
TV Producer: Edwina Dennison
Planners: Bridget Angear, Rebecca Fleming & Margaux Revol
Account Management: Sarah Douglas, Tamara Klemich, Sara Abaza & Sarah Hore-Lacy
Production Company: Somesuch
Director: Daniel Wolfe
Producers: Lou Hake, Sally Llewellyn & Tim Nash
DoP: Monika Lenczewska
Music Supervision: Felt Music
Audio Post Production: Sam Ashwell & 750mph
Editing: Tom Lindsay @ Trim Editing
Post Production: The Mill & Framestore
