never just a period bodyform amv bbdo gif

Unrelenting Bodyform campaign proclaims that its 'Never just a period'

Developed by AMV BBDO, the integrated campaign challenges society to genuinely understand women+'s bodies and to better equip them for life within their own bodies

By Creative Salon

01 August 2024

Femcare brand Libresse/Bodyform has created the 'Never Just A Period' campaign to highlight 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 integrated campaign developed by long-standing creative partner AMV BBDO aims to initiate an open conversation and education around menstrual health throughout the lives of women+ consumers.

Central to the integrated campaign is a film about how painfully unprepared women+ are for a life inside their bodies, bemoaning centuries of terrible education, lack of research and knowledge, and years of dismissing and minimising women+’ health problems.

Directed by Netflix hit show Eric director, Lucy Forbes, through Smuggler, the film 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.

All the action is scored by a female-only Greek chorus-inspired orchestra responding to the ups, the downs, and the ouches. This inclusive chorus for women+ experiences help 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 consumers to talk openly about their experiences. “What do you wish you’d been told?” it asks, hoping to start conversations.

As a commitment to dynamite shame surrounding periods, vaginas, vulvas, and women+’s bodies, Libresse/Bodyform has been tracking the perception and prejudice of taboos globally through its Global V-Taboo Tracker since 2020.

Four years on, Libresse / Bodyform is digging deeper than ever into the reality of women+' experiences in relation to taboos. The considerably enriched study, listened to 10,000 people across 10 countries, exploring not only all stages of menstrual life in relation to taboos, but all dimensions of menstrual experiences. From attitudes to behaviours, knowledge, exposure and emotions, the result of this deeper listening has also informed the brand’s latest creative work.

The new data reveals that more than half (59 per cent) 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 the experiences of women+, especially in medical settings. As a result, women+ are not properly taught about their own bodies.

'Never Just a Period' operates 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 one in five of those who menstruate felt ‘calm and ready’ to start their first period;
Two in five (42 per cent) of those who menstruate feel the knowledge of their cycle has ‘lots of gaps’;
90 per cent of those who menstruate know little to nothing about perimenopause;
Only two in five of those who menstruate have felt comfortable enough to talk to their healthcare professional about their menstrual health.

Sadly, the lack of knowledge doesn’t improve with experience. As women+ get older, 90 per cent of those who menstruate admit to knowing little to nothing about perimenopause. Women+ are spending whole lifetimes with more questions than answers around their own bodies.

Tanja Grubner, global marketing and communications director at Essity comments on the new campaign: “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.”

The AMV BBDO creative team behind the work Lauren Peters and Augustine Cerf commented: “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 global integrated campaign unveils a diverse array of content, ranging from six seconds to two minutes. This comprehensive suite is slated to roll out across digital, social platforms and TV. In total, over 100 unique assets have been crafted for this multi-channel push.

Libresse/Bodyform works to pave the way for taboo-breaking communications in the women+ health category, with campaigns such as Blood Normal (the first period ad to ever show actual red blood instead of blue liquid), Viva La Vulva, Womb Stories, and Periodsomnia.