Periodsomnia opens with the inside of a throbbing uterus. The music of a thumping track kicks in, and the inside of the uterus is interspersed with cuts of women+ preparing for a ‘night on our period’; re-making a bed with darker linen, wearing extra pants, tossing and turning. As the music reaches a crescendo, we switch in and out of an infrared gaze. Next, we see a plethora of women+’s experiences trying to sleep; lying awake while their baby sleeps, killing pain with pleasure or pills all mixed in with surreal visuals of vibrant poppies of blood. We then see a woman relaxing into a bath, fully immersing herself in water and re-emerging into a calmer, more surreal world with a blood red lake and other women+ relaxing. We return to the real world with the supers ‘periods never sleep’ punching the screen, followed by ‘but why shouldn't we?

Libresse is a challenger brand, #5 globally, behind the P&G giant Always. We’re outspent and dominated in store. In this hyper competitive environment, we had to showcase how our products were superior. To do this, we decided to focus solely on the night. We believed that if a brand can protect you all night, it can surely protect you during the day (when women+ have more control over their bodies and opportunities to change their protection). Competitor communications consisted of stereotypical depictions of women sleeping soundly on their periods, not a hair out of place. These representations, along with wider culture’s sexualisation of women in bed, masked the reality of night-time on your period. We therefore set ourselves the objectives of connecting meaningfully with women around their periods at night and gaining our fair share of market by shining a light on the reality of periods at night.

Periodsomnia worked, hard. Libresse gained market share in all markets. In France, Libresse/Nana Night grew faster than the market reaching 14.3% (sales value growth). We created one of the most persuasive ads. In Kantar testing, 63% of women+ said they were persuaded to try Libresse having seen Periodsomnia. Periodsomnia worked because it resonated with women+. One fan on social media said ‘One of the most realistic ads for periods, no one sleeps comfortably when you’re literally dying of pain. This is how we survive it’. Key opinion leaders such as Lisa Sanfillipo, author of ‘Sleep is a feminist issue’, wrote to us saying ‘this campaign is a fresh take on something most women will have suffered in silence or not realised was a ‘thing.’ In broader culture too, we were picked up by Grazia, You, and Glamour who ran features crediting Libresse for bringing the topic to their attention.

Although we dropped the big red bomb in 2017 with our Blood Normal campaign and many competitors have followed suit in abandoning blue liquid for real period blood, there are still many that find the sight of period blood shameful and disgusting. Periodsomnia was the UK’s most complained ad in 2022. But, as the brand that helps women live fearless, we will never back down to remove the stigma associated with menstruation. We are proud to report that the ASA ruled in favour of Libresse, testament to all the work we have accomplished to completely re-shift the category and society. We wanted to call attention to this to show that it is a constant risk to show period blood and constant battle to de-stigmatise it.