Finally, a sanitary napkin ad featuring blood instead of the silly blue ink

Bodyfrom's new ad features blood instead of blue liquid. Photo Courtesy: YouTube

If Donald Trump becoming the US President, Rahul Gandhi entering the women's washroom, and Arvind Kejriwal's car theft has already made 2017 the worst year in your head, there's some great news for you: Finally, a UK-based sanitary napkin brand has featured realistic blood on a sanitary towel in their advertisement instead of the good-old blue ink.

The campaign by Bodyform which aims to break the taboo over periods opens with a vial of blood being poured onto the sanitary towel to show its 'ultra-absorbing core.' Next, it unabashedly shows visuals of blood streaming down a woman's thighs as she takes a shower--something that all women can relate to.

Wondering what led to the change? Here's the answer:

Once upon a time Chicago-based comedy group Upright Citizens Brigade had released a parody on the far-from-reality sanitary-pad commercials. As outrageously hilarious tat was, it wasn't the inspiration behind Bodyform's move.

Well, we all have turning points in our lives, right? Ones that change the way we see the world. It turns out that for Bodyform, the turning point were the findings of a recent study which revealed that one in five women believe their confidence has been damaged because periods aren't discussed openly. In fact, 42% women believed that if this silence continued in the future, girls' confidence will continue to be at risk.

Thanks to menstruation stigmas, we still cover sanitary napkin packets with black polythenes. Photo Courtesy: YouTube

According to Mail Online, Traci Baxter, marketing manager at Bodyform, explained: "We know that the 'period taboo' is damaging. It means people are more likely to struggle with the effects of period poverty, whilst others struggle with their mental health and wellbeing."

And hence, this first-of-a-kind, close-to-reality campaign!

Reality check: In normal human beings, RED is real the colour of blood

As a teenager, I still had one major misconception about menstruation despite my mother making it abundantly clear that sanitary napkins weren't adult diapers.

Sanitary napikn brands use blue liquid to represent blood. Photo Courtesy: YouTube

For a good amount of time, I thought period blood is blue--all thanks to Stayfree, Whisper and the others of their league using an odd, blue-coloured liquid to flaunt the blood-absorbing powers of their product. However, I saw the misrepresented reality with my own eyes soon after.

This brings me to the next point which is that apart from being misleading, using blue ink is funny because hello! Don't we all know that the only time we bleed blue is during Indian cricket team's matches? Otherwise, red is the colour of blood.

What's even funnier is the fact that everyone knows this just like we know that the sun rises from East and sets in West and that the Earth is round.

Yet, there's reluctance in showing blood in sanitary-napkin advertisements which have everything to do with--RED--blood. Why? Well, because in this case, the blood flows from the vagina. Tsk. Tsk.

Bollywood movies are proof

If despite this reality check, you still don't believe that blood is red, we have a stronger proof for you. No, we're not going to ask you to slit your wrists and check. All you've got to do is to check out any Bollywood masala flick with a hero trying to save a damsel in distress/ fighting 50 villains off single-handedly. In all probability, the lead protagonists, the supporting cast, and all the background artists will bleed--red, unless of course, it's a hideous sci-fi like Love Story 2050.

Showing blood resulting from violence is fine, but showing blood flowing from the vagina isn't. Photo Courtesy: YouTube

What's ironic here is the fact that there's no iota of shame while showing blood resulting from the shameful act of violence. In fact, Shah Rukh Khan made a whole career out of being beaten up by darling Simran's fiancé in DDLJ. But when it comes to menstruation, the redness of the blood becomes a bigger problem than Trump's sexist ideologies in life. 

Bodyform too took off slow, but it did take off after all

Check out this year-old advertisement of Bodyform:

Notice how they've shown some really tough women playing rugby, running, surfing, mountain biking, skate boarding, rock climbing, boxing, and ballet dancing--despite the profuse bloodshed and pain they're undergoing?

If you're wondering what those sports injuries have got to do with periods, here's the deal: The idea is to encourage women to not let ANY kind of blood slow them down. That "any" by the way, includes period blood too.

The ad shows women bleeding. Photo Courtesy: YouTube

Fine! They still didn't get to the point DIRECTLY and showed no period blood there, but at least there was blood--real, RED blood, the blood we bleed, the blood that people are so hesitant to show on television in context to menstruation.

And need we mention that any start in the right direction is a good start?

Indian brands, are you listening?

While we are still reeling in the happiness that Bodyform's advertisement has given us, the heart also yearns for some desi happiness, which can only be brought in by the sanitary napkin brands available in our country.

All this while we've only seen them promoting stereotypes by showing women not moving out of their houses just because of Aunt Flo being around or women avoiding white jeans during those five days of the month or simply the idea that showing real blood amounts to embarrassment.

According to many sanitary-napkin ads, women stay indoors during their monthlies. Photo Courtesy: YouTube

So how about finally stepping into the real world where blood is red and where women menstruate just like they breathe or blink their eyes?