Ad Shows Menstrual Blood for 1st Time

No more blue liquid for Bodyform
By Michael Harthorne,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 18, 2017 2:48 PM CDT

Periods involve blood. And in 2017, one advertiser, at least, appears ready to recognize that. Cosmopolitan reports a new ad from Bodyform shows a red liquid—instead of the standard blue liquid—being poured onto a sanitary pad. It also shows blood streaming down a woman's leg in the shower. The ad is the first for a feminine hygiene product to actually show a representation of menstrual blood. The tagline for the 20-second ad, according to the Independent: "Periods are normal. Showing them should be too.”

Essity, the parent company of Bodyform, says the goal of the Blood Normal ad campaign is to end "the stigma around periods," the BBC reports. Bodyform, citing its own research, states the confidence of one in five women has been hurt because of the taboo around periods. Traci Baxter, marketing manager at Bodyform, says they were "shocked" by that. "We want to change this by challenging the taboo and ultimately removing the stigma, making it even easier for anyone to talk about periods, now and in the future," she tells Cosmo. So far, the response to the ad has been mostly positive. "YESSSS a marketing campaign that I think may finally change stereotypes of happy, white trouser wearing, yoghurt eating women on their periods," one digital marketing executive tweets. (More period stories.)

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