Well, things are changing from today and if you’re in London, you might want to keep your eyes peeled for any double deckers going past.
A new ad campaign for sustainable tampon brand DAME is being rolled out featuring a woman (veterinary nurse, law student and beauty blogger, Demi Colleen) wearing underwear with a tampon string clearly visibly showing alongside the words ‘Bleed Red, Think Green’ – the first advert of its kind.
It’s probably fair to say most ads about sanitary products tend to be pretty neutrally ‘safe,’ We’re pretty certain most of them actually avoid even mentioning the word period, let alone the terms bleeding, menstruation and any others that signify a woman’s time of the month.
The campaign aims to show the realities of a period and to help remove the stigma that women should feel the need to hide their monthly bleeds. Alec Mills, DAME co-founder told Metro that they faced obstacles to get it past media executives who deemed it too “racy.”
“In bringing this ad to light, we faced many roadblocks. It is no coincidence that the media industry is dominated by men who aren’t comfortable talking about or seeing periods.”
He added, “Many iterations of our advert got rejected. Along the way, I was told it was: ‘Racy’, ‘What, in the industry, we call brave’ and ‘We might have some problems broadcasting this at breakfast shows’. This clearly demonstrates the vast cultural chasm between what is happening with women’s bodies and how they are portrayed in reality. We have an opportunity to change that, for good.”
The ad follows a successful This Girl Can TV campaign earlier this year, where one of the women stands up and shows her tampon string.
DAME co-founder Celia Pool said “For too long periods have been hidden away, avoided in conversation or whispered about in coded language.
“This just perpetuates the outdated narrative that periods are in some way shameful or dirty. Periods are a normal, natural bodily function for girls, women and people who menstruate. They’re not dirty or unhygienic. There’s no need for stigma. It’s just blood. Normal, natural blood. Nothing radical about it.”
