Bodyform
Women's personal hygiene products company Bodyform urges women to live fearless. Facebook/Bodyform

British feminine hygiene brand Bodyform recently released an ad, named “Blood,” taking a jibe at the stigmas surrounding women’s periods. The ad shows how women are not afraid to bleed, and no blood, not even menstrual blood, should hold them back. “Blood” is an amazing effort to showcase women empowerment, sending a strong message to all women to be fearless.

Marketers have long shied away from dealing with the menstruation topic, which is all but a natural thing. They have often dealt it in weird ways. If a liquid is shown in any female hygiene product ad, blue is the preferred colour. Generally, marketers never show blood when advertising menstruation products. Hence, this new path-breaking ad has been widely discussed on social media.

The ad shows women bleeding while participating in various sports such as boxing, mountain biking, dancing, football and skateboarding. Bodyform even went to different UK universities to understand how periods affect women’s physiology during exercise.

The company tweeted its findings on May 27 stating that “41.7 percent of exercising women reported that their menstrual cycle had a negative impact on their training and exercise performance.” Social media has applauded the ad for putting an end to inaccurate and sometimes offensive stereotypes that surround women’s menstruation.

Period stigma is also rife in Australia. Sometimes marketers exploit the shame and embarrassment surrounding periods in their communication.

“If you analyse the advertisements from sanitary product companies, most of them are ‘buy our product because we can offer you a more effective way to conceal menstruation,’” University of Melbourne research fellow Dr. Carla Pascoe told the ABC.

“Blood” is part of the Red.fit campaign that aims to educate people on how menstruation affects the body at different points in the monthly cycle, along with advice on exercise and nutrition.

Watch Bodyform’s period ad “Blood” here.

Source: YouTube/BodyformChannel

This is how social media users reacted on Twitter after watching the ad.

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