In the UK, feminine hygiene products are subject to a 5% tax, meaning they are classified as ‘luxury’, ‘non-essential’ items. However, if women required a monthly supply of flapjacks, baked Alaskas or helicopter parts these would be considered essential and could be purchased tax free.

This unfair tax has been around since the 1970s, and removing it has been a long running battle and longstanding topic of cultural and political debate. Women's rights activists have lobbied to abolish the tax for two decades.

To date, over 320,000 people have signed a petition on Change.org to scrap the Tampon Tax, and in March 2016, Parliament accepted an amendment proposed by Labour MP Paula Sherriff that would end Tampon Tax once and for all in the UK.

But in the summer of 2017 there was still no change in sight.

So Tesco reduced the price of all sanitary products they sell by 5%, effectively abolishing the Tampon Tax for their customers, accomplishing something no one had been able to do in 20 years.

To effectively abolish the Tampon Tax for our customers.

Tesco reduced the price of all sanitary products - own-brand and branded - by 5%, covering 5p in every £1 spent.

This wasn’t just an advert, or a film idea - this was a business idea Tesco invested in and put their money behind. Paying the Tampon Tax on behalf of their customers is a pledge of £5million of their own profits every year. And this isn’t a one off stunt - this is something Tesco have promised to do for as long as the Tampon Tax exists.

Tesco made history by becoming the first retailer to remove the Tampon Tax, and then 3 other major supermarkets did the same.

This campaign sends out a message of support and inclusion, and highlights how Tesco are both by and on their customer’s side: a real life application of Every Little Helps.

To launch, we took to the streets to tell the most important people first - our customers. Using a light film crew and an interviewer, we stopped women, young and old, in the street and asked them about the Tampon Tax. We captured women’s outrage and indignation around the issue, as well as their delight that Tesco are absolving the tax: a real life application of Every Little Helps and an embodiment of how Tesco values the rights of all women.

This film was put on the brand’s Facebook, Twitter and YouTube and the activity was held together with a simple call to action: #TescoTamponTaxOff in order to encourage others to address this injustice and follow suit.

POS signposted the campaign in every Tesco store in the UK, highlighting the price reduction and the reason for it.

Industry leadership

Tesco led the way for other supermarkets to follow. Just 10 days after launch, Waitrose declared they would also remove 5% tax from their feminine products. 5 days after that Morrisons and The Co-op also followed suit.

Impact

To date, Tesco has saved their customers £3.2 million, and will continue to save women money for as long as the tax exists.

Media coverage

Due to Tesco’s groundbreaking reveal, the #TescoTamponTaxOff campaign sparked conversations in 87 countries, generating over 2.3 billion media impressions despite having no paid media spend behind it.

This video received 59% positive sentiment in news coverage; compared to Tesco’s brand average of +12%.

Most importantly, we have saved young girls from ever having to pay the Tampon Tax.

Insight: Regularly purchasing sanitary products is an unavoidable reality for most women; it is estimated that the average woman spends almost £6000 over her lifetime - £300 of which is spent on this unfair tax.

Opportunity: As the UK’s largest supermarket, we sell 44.6m sanitary products each year and saw this as an opportunity to positively impact millions of women across the U.K because Tesco don’t think women should be taxed for being women.

Tesco is the supermarket at the heart of the nation; 89% of Britain’s population shop in our stores, meaning millions of women visit our stores each week.

As a brand we continue to look for ways in which we can help support the issues facing our customers and as such we recently reduced the price of women’s standard razors to match that of men’s in support of gender parity in high street products.

Our mission is to continue to bring back trust in Tesco as a brand, so we are always looking to find new ways to show our customers we are on their side.

We value every single customer, meaning their causes are our causes; we are here to help and our communications exist to bring these efforts to life.