Any conversation around menstruation, a subject of taboo across households in India, is met with strong resistance. Girls are taught to hide periods and all talk around it from the men of the house, even their own fathers. So they grow up, in silence and shame, trying their best to keep it a secret. It's one of the reasons why only 36% of 355 million mestruating women in India use sanitary protection. Which puts over 200 million women at the risk of diseases and infections rising from poor menstraul hygiene.

India's oldest sanitary napkin brand, Stayfree has been working towards normalising the conversation around periods. Over the years, Stayfree has spoken to the various cohorts around the hushed whispers - mothers, grandmothers and the girls themselves. But now Stayfree felt it's time to speak to the ears that these whispers protect - the men in every family.

Because if the men in every family would be comfortable talking about menstraution, these whispers would find voices.

Our idea was to get father-daughter duos to have their first-ever conversation about periods. But instead of convincing them to talk about it, we tricked them into it by inviting them to audition for an ad which they didn't know was for Stayfree.

The audition was released across all digital platforms on the occasion of Daughter’s Day, taking both the participants and the viewers on a journey of discovery and acceptance. Charting a million emotions, it underlines the truth that the shame and stigma that surrounds the subject of menstruation can be easily dissolved when fathers and mothers shoulder the responsibility – having the first conversation in the right way.