Advertisement

Bodyform's advert is the boundary-breaking period campaign women have been waiting for

Bodyform has released a new advert which tackles period taboos (Getty Images)
Bodyform has released a new advert which tackles period taboos (Getty Images)

Typically adverts for menstrual products have tended to steer clear from showing anything associated with actual periods.

But a new campaign by Bodyform is aiming to break every traditional taboo in period advertising by showing periods in all their messy, painful, emotional rawness and there’s not a drop of blue liquid insight.

Following up their Viva la Vulva advert, which celebrated differences in our genitals, Bodyform has now released Womb Stories, which gives a refreshingly honest depiction of not just periods but everything associated with them including pregnancy, miscarriage, endometriosis, IVF and menopause.

The three-minute video highlights the intimate and emotional accounts of women going through everything from plucking their nipple hairs to coping with the pressure about whether to have children, the pain of infertility and the uncertainty of getting your first period.

Read more: Period poverty 'getting worse' because of lockdown, charity finds

The advert release comes after a study by Bodyform revealed that two thirds of women (68%) who experienced miscarriage, endometriosis, fertility issues and menopause said that being open with family and friends helped them cope.

Highlighting a culture of silence still surrounding the entire topic, a fifth (21%) of women feel society wants them to keep silent about their experiences and nearly half of women (44%) felt staying silent about their issues damaged their mental health.

Commenting on the campaign Nicola Coronado UK and Ireland consumer marketing director at Bodyform says: “With #wombstories we are starting a movement. We want to boldly go where no other brand has been before; inside women’s bodies and emotions to truly represent their sensations and feelings that we believe are not only invisible but ignored, overlooked or denied.

“#wombstories reveals the narrative inside and out and we hope to put these topics on the table for all to talk about.

“We believe that only once we understand women’s bodies and everything they go through; can we care for them with our period and daily intimate care products.”

Read more: Sainsbury’s launches new range of period underwear

Since sharing a link to the video on YouTube via Twitter women have been praising the ad for its relatable realness.

Read more: Women spend £5,000 on period products in their lifetimes

The company are now calling for others to share their own experiences of having a womb via the hashtag #wombstories to try and break down the taboos that still exist in terms of talking about them.

So props to Bodyform for breaking out of the typical period advert mould to offer some much needed representation about the period issues so many have to deal with.