From a young age, men are taught about their erections and ejaculations while female reproductive education focuses mostly on periods and pregnancy prevention. That has an effect in the real world—with only 65% of heterosexual women reporting regular orgasms during sexual intimacy compared to 95% of men. From our personal lives to pop culture to porn, there’s a massive gap in the representation of female pleasure.

As the unapologetic brand of birth control that talks openly and honestly about sex, reproductive health and our bodies, ANNOVERA wanted to close that gap.

Realizing that it’s 2021 and talk is cheap, we wanted women to engage with us in a real way that’s about acting and living unapologetically in the name of sexual empowerment, self discovery, and female pleasure.

ANNOVERA wants to fight the stigma around women’s reproductive health and the way we talk about our bodies. One of the most stigmatized things in the world is a vagina. We say penis but not vagina on TV, even sex ed teachers won’t even say the word. 44% of women and 50% of men cannot correctly identify a vagina on a diagram! This has real-life consequences, with women left feeling ashamed of their own bodies, and their pleasure relegated to an afterthought. Utilizing Whitney Cummings to amplify ANNOVERA'S bold approach to talking about our bodies and reproductive health in the press and on social media, we targeted sex-having, forward-thinking women with a bold message of sexual empowerment and self discovery. Where other brands stick to pregnancy prevention, we wanted to create buzz around pleasure, because news flash: that’s mostly why people have sex in the first place.

The week prior to Vagina Appreciation Day, we put out educational content where Whitney Cummings dispels myths surrounding the female orgasm. Industry trade press helped elevate Vagina Appreciation Day as a holiday that deserves our attention, and the bold launch video confirms why: Whitney lands on a staircase next to a giant neon sign that says “PLEASE COME.” In media appearances and an intimate day-of selfie video, Whitney confirmed her participation and asked her followers to do the same, to get out of work or social engagements and get into themselves. With likes, comments, shares and stickers, we gave women an array of ways to confirm they celebrated a day of pleasure meant to empower women.

Trade press firmly planted Vagina Appreciation Day on the cultural calendar, and earned media pushed an unapologetic conversation about sexual health & female pleasure into the mainstream—garnering 71.8 million impressions and 1.9 million organic engagements among our audience, resulting in a 50% increase in web traffic and 380% increase in organic search visibility for our brand. But what we really wanted was orgasms, and we got them in the form of 12,100 engagements actions on social media letting us know they celebrated Vagina Appreciation day though likes, comments and shares from women everywhere (plus a bunch of female celebrities), which in turn raised $12,100 in brand donations for women’s sexual health and education initiatives. Never has doing good felt so good.

Pharma work in the United States is subject to legal review boards. In addition, and not surprisingly, most social media platforms are uncomfortable with content that talks openly about sex and female pleasure. Unfortunately, these cultural and logistical hurdles keep messages of sexual empowerment away from the mainstream.

We targeted sex-having, forward-thinking women on Vagina Appreciation Day with a message of sexual empowerment specifically to tackle gender inequity in conversations about female pleasure, who are otherwise patronized by reproductive healthcare marketing.