“A bloodshed moment for women's advertising” - The Telegraph

“A slice of genius. Blood! Pain! Miscarriage! Hot flushes! I just showed it to my 16-year-old and she said “it makes me really proud to be a woman” JOB DONE.” - Caitlin Moran.

“Wombstories nails the female experience better than Hollywood has done in over a century of movies” - Nikki Buaghan

The idea:

Essity Libresse/Bodyform new campaign, #wombstories, introduces the world to our womb dwellers, the anthropomorphic inhabitants of uteruses who sometimes work for us, and sometimes against us. Through them we tell the raw, untold, unheard and often unknown stories of women’s experiences. From endometriosis, fertility issues, pleasurable sex lives, first periods, menopause, miscarriage, through to the choice not to have children, #wombstories creates a universal rollercoaster ride of the agony and joy of life with a uterus. And where the feminine care category reduces menstruation to a biological, clinical function and tries to suppress it, #wombstories - for the first time - portrays the emotional bittersweet journey that lasts a lifetime. But #wombstories isn’t just a film. At its heart it is an ambitious listening and learning project. With hundreds and hundreds of women all over the world inspired to describe their relationship to their wombs in emotional and metaphorical ways. These poetical descriptions have been turned into an ongoing reactive social campaign.

The background:

#wombstories makes a fundamental shift away from the functional focus on periods and into the emotional experiences realm, because at the heart of the taboo lies a piece of dangerous fiction - a damaging myth that has fuelled silence and shame. It’s the single story all girls are taught: Get your periods at 12, repeat neatly, accept pain discreetly, want and have babies, get some more periods and then retire quietly at menopause.
The problem is, this makes every other experience feel abnormal and wrong. And the simple truth is it’s not only at odds with the complexity of experiences women go through, it has cast their pain, their pleasure, their agency, and their struggles behind a wall of shame and silence. With devastating consequences on their physical and mental wellbeing.

80% don’t seek help despite worrying pain. 40% of those who had miscarriage, menopause or endometriosis felt their mental wellbeing was damaged from not being able to openly share their experiences. It takes on average 7,5 years to get an endometriosis diagnosis. On and on it goes.

Results

Launched in the middle of the pandemic, #wombstories was still able to cut through with its raw empathy. It’s already breaking down the shame, and the silence.
An incredible number of people, women and men, are sharing their diverse and poignant #wombstories across social media and in our #wombstories archive and expressing their gratitude for the campaign. People have found the courage to tell their own (and often for the first time) previously deeply hidden #wombstories.
From journalists saying it is “the “most relatable ad ever made” (Glamour), to Hollywood stars telling everyone to “take a ride on the bittersweet rollercoaster that is the female experience” (Cara Buono), the reaction from mainstream media & influencers has been overwhelmingly positive.
It’s still early in the campaign but the results have already exceeded the success of the previous taboo-breaking Libresse/Bodyform campaigns Redfit, Bloodnormal and Viva La Vulva in 4 short weeks. With a 200% increase of followers on social, 100s of pieces of PR coverage and over 2410000 engagements, it’s proving that when you finally break the wall of silence, people are relieved and ready to share their #wombstories.