Whisper is a leading feminine hygiene brand in India. But in 2012, its key competitor, through a new approach, reframed the category language and drove conversations that made its brand more newsworthy and relevant to young urban women.

In this context, our task was to drive relevance by reasserting a new “contemporary conversation” about periods with young urban women, in a socially-interesting, fame-generating way.

Research pointed us to deep rooted period taboos still alive in the 21st century that feed a culture of shame leading to young women growing up with a disgraceful sense of self. Taboos like not entering the kitchen, and even not touching pickles, a daily Indian meal condiment, for fear they would rot with their touch.

‘Touch the Pickle’ was a social movement by Whisper that bravely took on the culture of shame propagated through period taboos. Supported with strategically developed TV-spots, branded-content, celebrity endorsements and activations across key touch points, Whisper inspired young women to speak up and challenge period taboos.

In doing so, Whisper created a national conversation that got over 2.9 million women to participate and generated over USD 6.1 million in free-media and publicity while growing key brand relevance parameters and sales.

There are no regulations on the media and restrictions on political freedoms or civil liberties which are relevant to the campaign. With this movement, we were fighting the deep rooted culture of shame propagated by period taboos.

The campaign got the attention of and engaged with young urban women:

• The campaign achieved 73% unaided recall.

• It generated free-media worth USD 6.1million.

• Over 2.9million women participated and pledged to ‘Touch the Pickle’.

• Over 1.9million views on YouTube for the ‘Touch the Pickle’ video.

• Facebook engagement rate was 959 Index.

• Whisper’s Share of Voice grew from 21.0% TO 91.2%.

While sanitary pad advertising portray images of the emancipated young woman leading active lives in spite of their periods, the reality for young women in India is very different.

A national research by IPSOS pointed to the fact that ‘65% of women from urban India perceive monthly periods as an obstacle in achieving their full potential’. This was because unlike the emancipated young women in sanitary pad ads, young-women are pushed to dark corners for days on end during their periods; dark corners in their minds, and even in a lot of cases, dark corners of their own homes.

Deep rooted period taboos passed down through generations feed this culture of shame. It is propagated by elders in the family who lay strict restrictions on what menstruating women can’t do like…like not entering the kitchen, not attending social events, and even not touching pickles for fear it will rot with their mere touch. As many as ‘59% of women in urban India don’t touch the pickle during their periods’.

In challenging the culture of shame propagated by archaic period taboos, we believed Whisper could not only find a deeper relevance but also impact the lives of millions of young women.

Whisper as a brand stands for the emancipation of women. It enables them to be ‘unstoppable’ during their period-days with its superior products.

But in this context, we discovered that while women are stepping confidently forward in everyday life, archaic period taboos feed a culture of shame that hold women back from truly being free. Taboos like not entering the kitchen, not attending social events, and even not touching pickles, a daily Indian meal condiment.

In challenging this culture of shame propagated through archaic period taboos, Whisper found a deeper relevance; a relevance that drove conversations and ultimately impacted the lives of millions of young women.

We did this with the idea: ‘Touch the Pickle’ - a social movement that inspired young women to challenge and break archaic period taboos that hold them back. The words ‘Touch the Pickle’ was culturally a significant act of defiance because ‘not touching the pickle’ wasn’t just the most pervasive period taboo, it also symbolized the culture of shame where it was believed that pickle would rot with the mere touch of a menstruating woman.

To kick start the movement we needed to reach out to young urban women and spark a national conversation and debate about period taboos. So we started with a TV spot that asked young women to boldly break period-taboos by touching the pickle. This provocative message got the nation’s attention. Bollywood-celebrities and real-life women achievers stepped forward to spread the message. CNN-IBN, a leading news-channel hosted a show called #LetsTalkPeriod. Radio-Jockeys across major cities conducted live debates and Q&A sessions. Aditi Gupta, founder Menstrupedia, took to the Ted talks stage. Comedians, and women from different walks of life created compelling content to inspire young women and fuel conversations and debate on social media.