In a brand new advert from Bodyform, the Essity-owned U.Okay. female safety model, a health care provider tells a girl: “It’s just a period.”
His phrases set off a collective sigh from the refrain. As any lady or one that menstruates is aware of, it’s by no means only a interval, which is the overarching message of Bodyform’s marketing campaign.
Bodyform (generally known as Libresse in different markets together with the U.S.) has an extended historical past of confronting poisonous stereotypes and breaking taboos about intervals in its promoting. That’s current in its newest business, too. Nonetheless, this time the model goes past taboo-busting by advocating for higher training about ladies’s our bodies and well being all through their whole lives.
“Never Just a Period,” created by Essity’s longtime company AMV BBDO, goals to begin an open dialog concerning the dissonance between what ladies are taught to anticipate and the fact of their experiences round menstruation.
Directed by Lucy Forbes, the director of the current Netflix present Eric, the movie makes use of a mixture of comedy and hyperbolic visuals to depict ladies’s experiences and feelings which might be typically ignored or dismissed. The scenes embody discovering sudden discharge smells, going through docs who dismiss ache, getting your interval whereas breastfeeding, and having a coil inserted.
All through, a female-only, Greek chorus-style orchestra responds to the ups and downs, surprises, and ache. The refrain “provides a sense of collectivity and solidarity,” defined Lauren Peters, one of many creatives behind the advert.
There are additionally moments of exaggerated comedy, like when a health care provider inserts an enormous coil.
“We have this culture of dismissal, minimizing and ignoring [women], so it felt important that through the craft we made these experiences feel big, real, and to be noticed,” Peters stated. “Humor allows you to laugh at the absurdity of the situation, but not at the expense of understanding the reality of it.”
