We are in the midst of something of a revolution in the way that society talks about periods. Since Libresse released its award-winning Blood Normal spot in 2017, which binned the use of blue liquid in advertising for period products, we’ve seen a plethora of campaigns that aim to widen the conversation and tackle taboos.

Libresse has led the way in this field, extending its exploration of women’s health with ads celebrating the vulva and, most recently, looking at how our relationship with our wombs changes over a lifetime in the epic #wombstories. But the brand is not alone in this quest: we’ve also seen brands such as Thinx revolutionise the products available for those on their periods and charities including Hey Girls tackle the very serious problem of ‘period poverty’, when women and girls cannot afford period products.

This is the area within which the charity Bloody Good Period works too, and alongside Mother ad agency and Strange Beast directors Anna Ginsburg and Caitlin McCarthy, it has released this uplifting animation which aims to point out that we should never feel shame about being on our periods, however inconvenient they can be.

Set to a witty reworking of CeCe Peniston’s classic song Finally, the film addresses the various ways that periods can get in our way, all presented in a distinctive style.

The film is deeply relatable to anyone who experiences periods but the campaign also comes with some damning stats about how society reacts to this extremely common event, with research from Bloody Good Period showing that nine in ten of those who menstruate experience period anxiety at work, and that the pandemic has worsened the problem of access and affordability of period products. Bloody Good Period is now meeting a level of demand six times higher than pre-Covid, with over 81,000 packs of products distributed since the start of UK lockdown.

As well as spreading its message of #NoShameHere, the campaign encourages viewers to donate to its cause to end period poverty, via its website at bloodygoodperiod.com.

Credits:
Agency: Mother
Director: Anna Ginsburg, Caitlin McCarthy
Production Company: Strange Beast
Music Artist: Chiara Hunter