Hasta La Creative!

From mysterious blue liquid on sanitary pads to euphemistic images of women roller-skating in white jeans, advertising around feminine products has long been restricted by a taboo around the products that resulted in being alluded to rather than shown in any realistic form.

But advertising has increasingly challenged tradition: Hello Flo has used comedic fun around menstruation, while PSAs protest taxes on feminine products (like a recent film starring Amber Rose with a jewel-encrusted tampon holder.) Now, Libresse, a European brand owned by Essity (the healthcare arm of Scandinavia’s SCA spun off earlier this year), has broken perhaps the biggest taboo, by showing what periods really look like.

The advertiser was the first to show actual blood in a U.K. ad for feminine products last year, although that spot depicted women bleeding in sport. Now it has gone much further with a groundbreaking film that shows, for the first time, blood that’s clearly menstrual. Among its many images are blood running down a woman’s leg in the shower, and red blood being poured onto a sanitary towel.

Continue reading at AdAge.com