Stayfree's campaign addresses period awareness under lockdown

With nearly two million girls experiencing their first period during the lockdown, Stayfree encourages families to talk more openly about menstruation.

On the occasion of World Menstrual Hygiene Day, Stayfree unveiled a new digital video that invites families to change the way they approach the period conversation. Nearly two million girls in India would have experienced their first period during the lockdown. Built on this premise specific to the lockdown, Stayfree’s #ItsJustAPeriod encourages families to adopt a positive and open approach towards menstruation to keep her informed and make her feel confident and supported in this journey. 

Also, to ensure that families can comfortably have this conversation with the girls in the family, the brand has also tied up with Menstrupedia. The platform is a friendly period guide for girls which talks about what periods are and how to manage them better.

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Nearly 15 million girls enter the menarche cycle every year in India, yet more than 71% of them have no knowledge of menstruation before their periods. They often turn to their teachers and friends for information – the access to which, is restricted during the lockdown. 

“This World Menstrual Hygiene Day is a reminder to us all that the onus of normalizing the first-period experience for every young girl lies with all of us. During the pandemic when she doesn’t have access to her teachers for information, families can and must play the most important role in this” says Manoj Gadgil, Vice President Marketing, Johnson & Johnson Consumer division, India.

Commenting on the campaign, Shagun Seda, Creative Head – DDB Mudra West said, "There’s a lot of cultural baggage around periods in India. Period stigma has been perpetuated through generations with mothers handing down period shame to their daughters. So when a girl enters menarche, she usually turns to confidantes like her teacher and school friends instead of her mother or family members. But because of the lockdown, her first period experience will be a lonely one at home, with no one to talk to, and no place to hide. With this campaign, we want to encourage families that the first step in normalizing periods is to have an open conversation about it. To demonstrate this, we came up with the idea that her period is not hers alone, it’s everyone’s period".

The focus of this campaign is to propagate that period conversations are essential so as to ensure that girls do not go through their first experience with periods alone. This campaign will work as an ice-breaker for each individual to freely initiate important period conversations with their daughters or sisters. Parents, grandparents and even siblings can now help share information, make the experience positive, and most importantly ensure no girl ever has to feel ashamed of her periods.