The story of how Bloodnormal’s depiction of normality created an incredible wave of positivity helping change society, culture, media and the industry. Or, as some hater tweeted: “what happens when whores and pimps become marketers”. Let’s rewind. Libresse/Bodyform (ESSITY FemCare) is a global brand but a challenger in many markets – only number #6 globally. In 2017 they commissioned global research, it showed periods were still a worldwide taboo. 56% of teens would rather be bullied than tell their parents about their period. 90% of women hide their periods. Half of women have been period shamed. This led to a powerful insight: In 2017, there’s still a glaring absence of representations of periods in media and mainstream culture, fuelling toxic shame. Representations are what shape our perception of normality. So if periods were censored, euphemised or used to humiliate women, no wonder women felt disgusting and men disgusted. We had to do what no other brand had been brave enough to do: CREATING AN UNASHAMED NORMAL FOR PERIODS For the first time in history, we showed period blood, swapped the infamous blue liquid for red, had women publically asking for pads, men buying pads, and showed the emotional journey of periods: pain, intimacy, and beauty. The film was a springboard, each scene contained real world activations, from selling period lingerie, to giant pad-shaped lilos, to having a 12 year old comic telling positive period jokes. Bloodnormal had the crazy ambition to actively start changing society, culture and media through period positivity in representations. And do it by breaking not just one taboo, but dozens of them. If a completely mainstream brand was doing it, it would be a ground-breaking way of saying: “this is normal” That was our dream. YOU’VE GONE TOO FAR. We naively hoped media owners would take the historical step with us. Instead, we were hit with visceral rejections. And ordered to cut simple scenes like a kiss, a leg in a shower, embroidered underwear. And of course, blood on a pad. It felt hypocritical when mainstream media is awash with sexualised women and shows blood as a result of violence. It was clear the deep period stigma was clouding their judgment. It made us even more determined to get Bloodnormal into the world. Even if our client had to put her job on the line. Using creative judo, we incorporated the ban into our campaign – highlighting the bitter truth that periods were still considered offensive in 2017. WORTH PISSING OFF SOME PEOPLE The results wildly exceeded our hopes. From launch, there was global praise for Bloodnormal, among people and major media titles. From 4 countries, it spread to 32. Everywhere, in every language women said “thank you”, and “thank fuck”. Our fight became everyone’s: Men and women jumped to defend the cause. It opened so much debate around the taboo that Bloodnormal was discussed on multiple TV programmes globally – the very place from which our film was banned. Despite a small media investment, the campaign got 4.5 billion PR impressions, trended on Twitter, quickly reached over 800m, delivered a media ROI of over 13 and helped the brand steal the #1 social share of voice (vs. P&G). The impact on brand perception & purchase propensity was huge: 60% had a better opinion of the brand, +117% women thought of our brand as taboo-breaking, and over 2/3 women wanted to buy the brand (Ipsos). We’ve changed a company: Bloodnormal’s success convinced the entire business to change the way they operate and invest their first dollar of media behind taboo breaking comms. Our markets have pledged to bin the blue liquid forever. 94% of FemCare employees (across countries and functions) felt proud to work for Essity, and 3/4 of them recognised that it would attract talent. Winning over 50 awards including 2018’s Bravest Brand (Marketing Society), Titanium & Grand Prix for Glass (Cannes). Bloodnormal transformed the smallest segment of ESSITY into a professional inspiration for others. We’ve changed a category forever: Almost immediately journalists and people started calling on other companies to follow suit. Even competitors started using red liquid. We opened a door that can’t be shut. We overturned the bans: Most satisfying is the historical wins we’ve made with broadcasters. In France, after collating the evidence of success, we went back to the broadcasting authority that had rejected Bloodnormal and asked if they’d change their mind on the ban. And they did. In the UK, we recently went back to Clearcast for our latest campaign. This time they accepted blood on pad – something unthinkable a few months ago. (CONFIDENTIAL) From our struggles and our precedent, it will now be much easier to broadcast realistic depictions of periods and period blood. We have reached into culture: People created their own Bloodnormal imagery, which was reintegrated into our campaign. Our underwear was sold online and designer DESSU praised by French media as a post #metoo brand. Our pad-shaped lilos are spreading to beaches and social media pages globally. Saffron, our 12yo comic, is busy performing period jokes. Period activists and feminists are commonly referring to Bloodnormal. The UK International Women of the World festival even used it as a historical landmark in 2018. Victo Ngai, who created our graphic novel including periods, was awarded a gold medal at the Society of Illustrators New York 2019. Lucy Bridger, our film bursary winner, won the best UK Short film at both the 2018 London Short Film Festival and the UK Film Festival for her film “Mothering”. CONCLUSION “This is more than advertising. Making periods visible is good for your health.” (Guardian). By pissing off a few people, we’ve been able to help so many more. Turns out that doing the right thing for women, has also been the right thing for our brand. As Lucy Aitken, Managing Editor of WARC wrote: “This is a brand that feels like it could achieve absolutely anything right now. All hail Libresse/Bodyform. You are rewriting the very definition of brand bravery.”