Libresse, or Bodyform as it’s known in the UK, is back with a new spot called Never Just a Period, which shows how inadequate teaching and advice about periods can cause problems and anxieties at any age, not just puberty (though then too). The name evokes the frustrating response all-too-often given to people who raise concerns or questions about their periods.

Set to the sounds of an all-women orchestra, the ad mixes live action and animated scenes as it journeys through a range of confusing scenarios, from tampon instructions to smear tests, missed periods to motherhood.

In keeping with previous work from AMV BBDO and Libresse, the ad – directed by Lucy Forbes at Smuggler – combines humour and harsh realities, and encourages people to break down taboos by talking openly about their bodies.

“The film stages many not talked about, yet not uncommon experiences, like getting a period whilst breastfeeding, periods not coming back for months after stopping contraception, and large clots during perimenopause – all things that we’d have expected if only somebody had told us,” say AMV BDDO creative team Lauren Peters and Augustine Cerf.

“The campaign plays its small part in representing these experiences while also touching on the big systemic and societal issues which stand between women+ and better knowledge about their own bodies. Whether it’s pain being minimised and dismissed in medical contexts and being told it’s ‘just a period’, when it’s always, always so much more.”

Credits:
Agency: AMV BBDO
CCOs and Creative Directors: Nicholas Hulley, Nadja Lossgott
Creatives: Lauren Peters, Augustine Cerf
Creative Design Director: Vanessa Fowler Kendall
Designer: Dian Sofia
Production Company: Smuggler
Director: Lucy Forbes
DoP: Polly Morgan
Post-production Company: Framestore
Music: Soundtree
Edit: Tenthree
Stop-Frame Animator: Anna Mantzaris
Sound: 750mph
Photographer: Aleksandra Martinovic