Case Study: Bloodnormal
“We all thought we might lose our jobs over the campaign, as the money had already been spent.” Say Nadja Lossgott and Nicholas Hulley: “At that point it felt like game over…”
They’re discussing the Bloodnormal campaign, which aimed to break taboos. But little did the creative team at AMVBBDO realise how entrenched attitudes were around period blood. A world-class film and creative campaign wasn’t enough, it would take AMVBBDO everything they had to perform ‘creative judo’, and not just launch a campaign, but change regulation.
The background
With a relationship stretching back to 2013, AMVBBDO and Libresse/Bodyform had been on a transformative journey together. Initially developing the ‘live fearless’ brand position, the collaboration went on to launch ‘Red. Fit.’ a campaign which smashed convention by openly showing blood in an ad for women’s sanitary products. Bloodnormal would be the culmination of this journey: a revolutionary, category shifting piece of creative work.
Back in 2016 the spot ‘Blood’ caused a stir by addressing the elephant in the room – that women’s periods feature real blood. The brand argued that Menstruation was ‘the last taboo’, and won plaudits, awards and sales as a result.
But even though the campaign was a critical success, there was plenty of work to do to shift cultural attitudes. AMVBBDO wanted to lead by example, and push back against ‘period shame and period taboos’ which still existed.
The insight
A full team was put together at AMVBBDO, including creatives and accounts who had worked on the project since 2013, and creative direction from multi-D&AD Black Pencil winning Nadja Lossgott and Nicholas Hulley.
Research showed that 56% of teenage girls would rather be bullied than tell their parents about their periods. Meanwhile, 90% or women of all ages hide their periods, with almost half of women having been ‘period shamed’. The answer, according to AMVBBDO, was to start treating periods normally.
“We would show that period blood, like any other blood we see, is red, not blue...” Hulley and Lossgott recall, “And we would show it in all its glory. Not to shock. But to normalise.”
The execution
The key execution would be a film, showing all the areas of normal life where periods can cause uncomfortableness. The idea was to show men buying pads, women sharing pads in public, and period blood. It was crucial though that the film didn’t shock, rather it normalised.
The film was also to serve as a central tenant of a host of real-world activations. A graphic novel was created by New York-based illustrator Victor Ngai, who had previously produced work for Johnnie Walker, AmEx and Apple. French fashion house Dessu worked with Anaïs Albar to produce an embroidered underwear design as an ‘ode to menstruation’. And Libresse commissioned a short film with a comedy set and interview with 12-year old comedian Saffron Herndon discussing – and joking about – periods.
Each of these activations tackled the topic of period blood head on, normalising it within discourse in a variety of media.
The film itself features trendy and diverse cast, filmed in a realistic style, with eye-level camera angles, natural lighting, and everyday scenarios. The production was spearheaded by Director Daniel Wolfe and DoP Monika Lenczewska through Somesuch. Props and graphics were contributed by Fraser Muggeridge Studio. It’s all set to a pulsating soundtrack created by rising French music stars The Blaze.
Launch
But creating the film itself wouldn’t prove to be the biggest challenge. There was regulators to bypass. “We knew we were pushing boundaries, however, we felt that the authorities would take the step with us as the time felt historically right.” Hulley and Lossgot expain, “Well, we were very, very wrong. We got big visceral no’s to scenes we didn’t even imagine would be controversial.”
Images such as blood on a pad, blood running down a leg, and even the kissing scenes were outlawed. The team was close to giving up, and the campaign was to be confined to the cutting room floor, along with a budget which had been spent. But with a last act of resourcefulness, “we decided to defy the rulings and incorporate the banning into our message in an act of creative judo. We would use the banning against the authorities. We would make normality revolutionary.” And so the TV authorities bans were incorporated into the film, alongside ironically pixelated blood.
Having encountered a host of regulatory issues with getting the film approved for television, the film was launched online. PR agency Ketchum took the lead on seeding the film globally. A range of different length of executions was created, and different channels used, depending on the nuances of each territory.
The response
Online debate raged, as people passionately argued back and forth. For Hulley and Lossgot, this was all part of the idea, “The debate it created was all part of bringing something seemingly shameful out in to the open to be discussed freely.” Some online comments were shocking, but the team took them in their stride, and turned them into social posts, juxtaposing the hateful comments with the normality of the images from the film.
The BBC ran with the headline, “Laters weird blue liquid” and Teen Vogue described the campaign as “what periods would be like in a perfect world.” With momentum behind it, the campaign now spread from 4 to 32 territories. It grabbed the number 1 ‘social share of voice’ against its competitors, and became a trending topic on Twitter. PR impressions of over 4.5 billion were recorded.
After a few months the team had amassed a dossier of evidence as to the positive, transformative effect of the campaign. They re-submitted the film to the French Broadcasting authorities for approval – and they agreed to let the film and the period blood stand.