Stayfree Sparks Change: Promoting Period Awareness in the Next Generation
Mumbai: This Daughter’s Day, Stayfree®, one of India’s leading menstrual hygiene brands launched its latest digital campaign which highlights the importance of healthy period conversations within families that help the girl to become comfortable about her periods. Within a family construct, normalizing periods among young boys is a critical step. Stayfree encourages parents to talk to their sons about periods from a young age. With this campaign, Stayfree has come up with a simple idea yet powerful idea for parents to initiate this conversation by asking them to buy a sanitary napkin.
Four years ago, Stayfree launched its ‘It’s Just a Period’ campaign champions healthy period conversations amongst people who matter most to a young girl- “her family”. The campaign aims to positively change the narrative of shame and silence often associated with periods and instead create a world where conversations about periods are normalized. In this journey, Stayfree first encouraged fathers to be a part of period conversation with their daughter, which then extended to ‘Talk to your Sons’ campaign encouraging parents to tell their sons “it’s just a period”. This year, Stayfree with its latest film takes another bold step in this direction with a simple call to action #BetaStayfreeLeAana to end generations of taboo.
Conceptualised by DDB Mudra, the new digital film captures poignant everyday moments in families, conversations between parents and their sons which are heartwarming and relatable. From a mother encouraging her young son to not feel awkward about buying sanitary napkins on a grocery run, to another mother explaining period as a regular and healthy phenomenon for every woman, to a father explaining to his son the need to care for women during their periods, the film sensitively highlights various situations in the household that makes boys feel comfortable with the topic of periods. The film leaves us with a powerful yet very simple message, “When we make our sons comfortable with periods, we make our daughters comfortable with it too.”
Manoj Gadgil, Vice President, Marketing and Business Unit Head- Essential Health, Kenvue said, “Periods have traditionally been a hush hush conversation limited to the women of the house with male members asked to look away creating a society where periods are seen as social stigma. When one half of the population is kept out this conversation true change in society is impossible. At Stayfree®, we are committed to normalizing period conversations and to create a world where no girl feels shame, fear or discomfort about periods. In our fourth edition, we take a real actionable step by not only urging parents to tell their sons ‘It’s just a period’ but also perhaps to go buy a sanitary napkin for their mother or sister taking a decisive step to end generations of stigma associated with periods.”
Rahul Mathew, Chief Creative Officer, DDB Mudra Group shared, “Over the years, Stayfree has been committed to normalizing the conversation around periods. And a big cohort in the normalization journey needs to be men. Women feel more uncomfortable because men are not comfortable around the topic of periods. So, a good place to start the conversation is with boys.”
As a part of the new campaign, Stayfreehas collaborated with popular national and regional influencers to highlight the important of healthy period conversations in families sharing personal experience of how they have normalised period conversations with their sons. The digital campaign will be seen across Youtube, Meta and leading OTT channels.
Link to the campaign film #BetaStayfreeLeAana | Daughter’s Day 2024 (youtube.com)
Campaign credits
Brand: Stayfree
Agency: DDB Mudra Group
Brand Team: Manoj Gadgil, Supriya Srinivas, Prateek Agarwal, Radhika Hingolikar, Amana S, Gitanjali Sabikhi
Creative: Rahul Mathew, Siddhesh Khatavkar, Harshada Menon, Rishabh Kallyat, Jyotsna Mohanty, Puru Walanj, Baskar Subbiah Thevar, Kanchi Undevia
Business: Saad Khan, Pooja Mehta, Snehal Wasnikar, Kanchan Joshi
Strategy: Shashank Lanjekar, Atreyi Nag
Films: Jay Gaikwad, Alisha D’souza
Production House: Mothership Productions
Director: Gaurav Gupta
Executive Producer: Kashif Memon
Producer: Aditya Dighe
DOP: Linesh Desai
1st AC: Roy Gurav
1st AD: Rishav Agarwal
DA: Prachi Arora, Kavya Kashyap
2nd AD: Aviral Garg
Production Design: Ambika Acharya
Casting: Aashish (Castingwaala Company)
Actors: Aashiqa, Divya Unni, Tina Bharti, Atharva, Vishal, Aditya Raj, Ambrish, Bhavin
HMU: Karan Singh
Sync Sound: Ajay
Line Producer: Shivnar Konar
Associate Line Producer : Karan Kandhari
Production Manager: Mautaseem Khan
Post Producer: Nikunj Jain
Offline Editor: Ayrton Pereira
Music Composer: Amey Ghule
Sound Engineer: Rishabh Bose
Online Editor: Satish Patil
Grade: Mahak (Bridge Post Works)