This campaign aired in the UK

In 2021, over a third of the girls can’t afford menstrual products. Meta’s Community Standards considered period as fetish content, shadowbanning (when not deleting) content that even includes the words “period” or “menstruation”. And outdoor media vendors rejected our campaign over concerns about the content.

The fear of getting blood stains leads to girls losing opportunities for their development, from classes at school to social gatherings and sport activities.

And when the stains happen, despite their efforts, girls experience period-shaming both from peers and adults. Many have been publicly and privately scolded by teachers because they didn’t know how to “handle” their periods. The taboo around period stains affects women of all ages across all cultures.

The first time we tried to air the campaign, the poster contractor, ClearChannel, rejected our campaign over concerns about the content. As the outdoor pieces were stuck in the rejected pile, Persil decided to launch a photography exhibition with the work. Over 15.000 people attended, including influencers and opinion leaders, and the conversation was sparked. People shared over 4200 stories about menstrual blood stains, and some became later part of “Anyone menstruating” – a book to keep washing away the taboo and to live in public libraries in our key markets. As a result, we took our case back to the ASA and CAP who finally allowed us to run the campaign. The campaign was able to reach over 38 million people combining social media, PR and outdoor. And this is just the beginning of Persil’s wider movement to wash away the taboo around period stains.

Despite some progress in the wider category, period stains are still very much taboo in the UK. They are unpredictable, inevitable and shameful. 83% saying they're unpredictable, 66% inevitable - and 67% experience them at least once a cycle. And despite 77% saying they are natural, 71% still feel they're embarrassing, 48% say they should be hidden in shame.

We would like the jury to know that the letters in this campaign are the result of in-depth interviews with real people. We spoke to people of all different backgrounds in terms of age, race, gender-identity and lifestyle to ensure these words felt true to the experience of menstruators not just those involved in the project or stories that were convenient to our cause.

We are proud to say that this campaign was conceptulised and executed, featuring the stories of people who bleed.