The Drum Awards for Marketing - Extended Deadline

-d -h -min -sec

Always Bodyform SCA

Bodyform launches 'Femoji' petition to break down taboos around periods

Author

By Rebecca Stewart, Trends Editor

March 3, 2016 | 3 min read

Bodyform has launched a campaign to include period ‘Femojis’ on the official Unicode emoji keyboard to help “break down taboos” and make it easier for females to overcome the social barrier of discussing their periods.

Femoji launches bodyform campaign

The brand has created a series of six icons it believes will enable girls and women to express their thoughts and feelings in a “practical and engaging medium.”

From sanitary towels, to pants and a hot water bottle, the icons also comprise some more tongue-in-cheek emoticons including a PMS-suffering cartoon and a ballooned ‘bloated’ character.

The push was devised after research into the issue by the SCA-owned brand found that almost half of UK women and girls (45 per cent) find it difficult to talk about their periods with friends and family.

An accompanying Change.org petition is inviting customers to provide their signature to make the new campaign a reality. Running across multiple markets, the initiative will be supported by vlogger outreach and a social campaign using the dedicated #Femoji hashtag.

“Menstruation is a natural process, but we still live in a society where we hide pads up our sleeves, where images of blood stains are removed from social media and British sportswomen are reluctant to speak up on the impact of menstruation on their performance," said marketing director at Bodyform, Nicola Coronado.

"In short, menstruation is still a taboo in the UK. We want to help break this taboo by generating more conversation around this potentially uncomfortable subject matter," she added.

The launch follows on from rival brand Always' most recent #LikeAGirl campaign which takes a critical look at the "shocking" way young women are represented by emojis and calls for more diversity in the keyboard.

81 per cent of females aged 16 to 24 use the 'language' on a daily basis, with 46 per cent saying there aren't enough emojis to represent "who they really are".

Always Bodyform SCA

More from Always

View all

Trending

Industry insights

View all
Add your own content +