Stayfree continues to spark conversations with parents in new Daughters’ Day campaign

This Daughters Day, Stayfree is back with its latest digital activation. But let’s start with some trivia… Did you know, last year, 70% parents refused to let their sons be cast in the Stayfree campaign “BetaStayfreeLeAana’. Some parents felt their sons would feel uncomfortable, some thought their sons were too young to be informed about menstrual hygiene and sanitary napkins, while some gave in to social pressure and felt their son’s friends would tease them for featuring in an advertisement for a sanitary napkin.

Despite these rejections, Stayfree continues its journey to normalize period conversations. These rejections in fact reinforce the need for sustained efforts in normalizing period conversations in the country – a journey Stayfree is committed to.

Created by DDB Mudra India, the film spotlights an honest conversation between Linda Fernandes, content creator and mother of a young teenage son, and fellow parents who initially rejected their sons’ appearance in Stayfree’s previous campaign.

The film brings to the fore the powerful role of a simple conversation in overcoming traditional stigmas associated with periods. The conversation starts with concerns, hesitation and social stigmas surrounding periods, and gradually progresses – with some acceptance and some still trying to break the taboo – highlighting the role campaigns like “BetaStayfreeLeAana’ have played in helping parents overcome shame associated with periods. The film ends with a powerful yet very simple message, “When we make our sons comfortable with periods, we make our daughters comfortable too.”

With an aim to overcome these taboos and stigmas, Stayfree’s ‘It’s Just a Period’ campaign has been championing healthy period conversations amongst people who matter most to a young girl – “her family”. Over half a decade, the campaign has aimed to positively rewrite the period narrative to create a world where conversations about periods are normalized. In this journey, Stayfree first encouraged fathers to be part of the period conversation with their daughters, which then extended to ‘Talk to your Sons’ campaign encouraging parents to tell their sons “It’s just a period,” and then took another bold step, #BetaStayfreeLeAana to end generations of taboos with a simple action.

Manoj Gadgil, Vice President, Marketing and Business Unit Head- Essential Health, Kenvue said, “For the last five years, Stayfree has been committed to normalizing period conversations to create a world where no girl feels shame, fear, or discomfort about periods. When building our last campaign, ‘Beta Stayfree Le Aana,’ 70% of parents were hesitant to allow their sons to feature in the film because they were uncomfortable with the idea of boys being casted in a period ad. This reinforced the need for us to continue breaking these barriers and social stigmas associated with periods. So, this year, we went back to some of these parents to see if our efforts were working. The response we got inspired this film. This is a campaign, but the change is REAL. That is all we wish for.”

Harshada Menon & Siddhesh Khatavkar, Executive Creative Directors, DDB Mudra, added: “In the past, whenever we sent casting calls for ads with boys, parents were more than happy to say yes. But when we sent the Stayfree script, most of them rejected it completely. We realized that those very rejections could become a powerful campaign. So, we went back to the same parents to have a conversation and to see if they’d changed their minds. The ‘Rejections to Conversations Stayfree Ad’ asks a simple but powerful question – if we’re okay with our sons appearing in ads for clothes, shoes, or chocolates, shouldn’t we be okay with them in sanitary napkin ads too?”

Credits
Brand: Stayfree
Agency: DDB Mudra Group
Brand Team: Manoj Gadgil, Supriya Srinivas, Saumya Chaturvedi, Prabhdeep Kaur, Dipti Naithani
Creative: Rahul Mathew, Harshada Menon, Siddhesh Khatavkar, Jyotsna Mohanty, Sahiti Gurram, Aniket Sawate, Tanvi Akkaraju, Jena Shah
Business: Saad Khan, Pooja Mehta, Priyanshu Dikshit, Nidhi Nair, Kanchan Joshi
Strategy: Shashank Lanjekar, Atreyi Nag, Mrudul Mande, Nistha Ojha