DDB Mudra India and Stayfree, one of India’s leading menstrual hygiene brands, have created this film for Daughter’s Day which highlights the importance of healthy period conversations within families that help the girl to become comfortable about her periods.
Within a family construct, normalizing periods among young boys is a critical step. Stayfree encourages parents to talk to their sons about periods from a young age. With this campaign, Stayfree has come up with a simple idea yet powerful idea for parents to initiate this conversation by asking them to buy a sanitary napkin.
Four years ago, Stayfree launched its ‘It’s Just a Period’ campaign champions healthy period conversations amongst people who matter most to a young girl- “her family”. The campaign aims to positively change the narrative of shame and silence often associated with periods and instead create a world where conversations about periods are normalized. In this journey, Stayfree first encouraged fathers to be a part of period conversation with their daughter, which then extended to ‘Talk to your Sons’ campaign encouraging parents to tell their sons “it’s just a period”. This year, Stayfree with its latest film takes another bold step in this direction with a simple call to action #BetaStayfreeLeAana to end generations of taboo.
The new digital film captures poignant everyday moments in families, conversations between parents and their sons which are heartwarming and relatable. From a mother encouraging her young son to not feel awkward about buying sanitary napkins on a grocery run, to another mother explaining period as a regular and healthy phenomenon for every woman, to a father explaining to his son the need to care for women during their periods, the film sensitively highlights various situations in the household that makes boys feel comfortable with the topic of periods. The film leaves us with a powerful yet very simple message, “When we make our sons comfortable with periods, we make our daughters comfortable with it too.”
Manoj Gadgil, Vice President, Marketing and Business Unit Head- Essential Health, Kenvue, said: “Periods have traditionally been a hush hush conversation limited to the women of the house with male members asked to look away creating a society where periods are seen as social stigma. When one half of the population is kept out this conversation true change in society is impossible. At Stayfree®, we are committed to normalizing period conversations and to create a world where no girl feels shame, fear or discomfort about periods. In our fourth edition, we take a real actionable step by not only urging parents to tell their sons ‘It’s just a period’ but also perhaps to go buy a sanitary napkin for their mother or sister taking a decisive step to end generations of stigma associated with periods.”
Rahul Mathew, Chief Creative Officer, DDB Mudra Group, said: “Over the years, Stayfree has been committed to normalizing the conversation around periods. And a big cohort in the normalization journey needs to be men. Women feel more uncomfortable because men are not comfortable around the topic of periods. So, a good place to start the conversation is with boys.”
As a part of the new campaign, Stayfree has collaborated with popular national and regional influencers to highlight the important of healthy period conversations in families sharing personal experience of how they have normalised period conversations with their sons. The digital campaign will be seen across Youtube, Meta and leading OTT channels.
