Canesten is on a mission to help young people with a vagina better understand their body and have greater confidence to look after their intimate health.
The UK is seen as a progressive nation for sexual health education, however only 6% of UK women (aged 16-25) learned about intimate health conditions through education. This is vastly inadequate and can lead to feelings of shame and distress.
To reduce embarrassment and stigma, we developed a revolutionary education-at-scale, digital first initiative; The Truth, Undressed.
The unique programme targets people with a vagina, aged 11-24. It’s designed to break down the misconceptions and taboos that surround vulval anatomy and vaginal health.
For the first time ever, young people have unprecedented access to images of real vulvas, accurate depictions of vaginal discharge and real pubic hair.
The Truth, Undressed Hub
We created a microsite (truthundressed.co.uk) to provide an educational resource where young people can find images, information and expert advice designed to help them better understand their vaginas and overcome shame and embarrassment.
Early education
To achieve long-term societal impact, we partnered with the PSHE Association - the national curriculum body for personal, social, health and economic education. We integrated The Truth, Undressed into the UK school syllabus by providing digital lesson plans for teachers covering Key Stages 3-5 (aged 11–18).
Driving reach via social media
A series of impactful educational films across TikTok and Instagram enabled us to directly reach our youth audience and direct them to the microsite.
Objectives
At Bayer’s heart is the purpose ‘Science for a Better Life’, which drives a passion for science-based education. Rooted in social purpose with the key objective to empower society with greater knowledge on intimate health, Canesten is committed to this cause because education and awareness surrounding intimate health is so low.
· 6%i of UK women (aged 16-25) find out about intimate health conditions through education
· 60%i of UK women (aged 16-25) find out about vaginal infections when they experience them
The UK is seen as a progressive nation for sexual health education, but research suggests that vaginal health education is inadequate, which leads to feelings of shame and distress.
· Almost halfii of UK women (aged 18-24) feel worried about the appearance of their vulva
· Two in threeii UK women (aged 18-24) would change something about their vulva if they could
· 55%ii UK women (aged 18-24) avoid seeking medical help because they feel too embarrassed to show a healthcare specialist their vulva
Furthermore, images of vulvas are either over-sexualised via media and popular culture, including pornography, or they’re inaccurate metaphors and illustrations. These images don’t represent reality and cannot tackle the shame young people feel about their bodies.
Canesten’s The Truth, Undressed is a ground-breaking initiative that provides the bare-naked facts about vulvas. We wanted to reach young people aged 11-24, to give them access to uncensored, unsexualised and accurate information about intimate health. By fearlessly confronting the topic, we can break down stereotypes and teach young people about the reality of how our bodies look and behave.
[i] 1,600 women, Canesten WIH Path to Purchase study, conducted by Truth, 2019
[ii] Survey of 1,000 UK women (aged 18-24) – ‘Different Is Normal’ research by Canesten and sexual health charity Brook, conducted by 3GEM October 2020
Strategy
To create lasting societal change, the programme targets primarily young people as well as teachers, parents and wider society online.
The Truth, Undressed microsite
To provide real education, we can’t be afraid to talk about vulvas, vaginas and vaginal discharge. The microsite includes content covering topics from cultural pressures and labiaplasty, health conditions like BV, thrush and vaginismus, pubic hair and the choices that come with it, to what a vagina should smell and taste like. They’re truths that get left out or are taught inadequately by schools, either because it isn’t directly related to reproduction or is deemed inappropriate for minors.
When developing the content, we utilised Canesten's 40+ years of intimate health knowledge and collaborated with Dr Anne Henderson, Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist, who reviewed the depictions of vaginal discharge to confirm their medical accuracy.
For the first time in education, we showed real photographs of diverse representations of vulvas and discharge. Our intention was to move imagery away from sexualised depictions and into an informative, educational space to equip young people with the information they need to understand their bodies.
We enlisted the expertise of Sophie Mayanne, an award-winning photographer to shoot unedited, real-life photographs of vulvas of all shapes, sizes, skin tones and types of pubic hair. Great attention was given to ensure the images show what vulvas look like in a desexualised, educational context. For example, through depicting daily nude situations outside of sexual scenarios, such as dressing or showering by using bright, daytime lighting which shows the anatomy clearly and avoids night-time connotations.
In our efforts to be inclusive and represent all people who have a vulva, we worked with people from the LGBTQIA+ community. We also worked with the Unstereotype Alliance, a thought and action platform that seeks to eradicate harmful stereotypes in advertising content, with the aim that no one feels excluded by our language, images, or actions.
Bold Social Films
To enable this programme to exist in the public realm as well as the microsite, we created short form video ads for Tiktok and Instagram to drive traffic to the site. Our films use an empowering tone of voice to rally young people, encouraging them not to settle for metaphoric or euphemistic images of fruit or plants to learn about their bodies – typical of what users might find if they search on social media for information on the female anatomy. Instead, they can discover The Truth, Undressed.
It was critical all safeguarding measures were in place during production and that we communicated with all relevant parties ahead of the materials being rolled out. We applied regulatory rigour too – all films were reviewed and approved by the respective social media platform hosts with exemptions made by Tik Tok in support of the educational nature of this content.
Digital lesson plans
A core part of the activity is to make The Truth, Undressed part of the national school syllabus in the UK. To achieve long-term societal impact, we need to ensure young people receive this education early and in a normal, open environment. That’s why four lesson plans were developed in partnership with the PSHE Association, suitable for Key Stages 3-5, covering the whole of secondary school through to college (ages 11-18). A supporting guidance document was also created to provide teachers with additional support ahead of teaching the lessons, covering safeguarding, inclusivity and parental consent.
We enlisted the support of two academics, Dr Ester McGeeney and Dr Elly Hanson, specialists in youth centred research on relationships and sexualities, to help develop the educational programme with the PSHE Association. The lesson plans cover the signs of vulval and vaginal health and ill-health to life-long vulval care. A teaching pilot was also carried out ahead of launch with 100% of respondents finding the resources to be engaging, relevant and helpful.
Teachers can choose lesson plan versions with either photographs, realistic illustrations, or without imagery. This enabled the schools to follow safe practice principles to make sure they have set up a safe classroom environment to discuss the topics and that the learning is approached in an inclusive, age-appropriate way.
Results
The Truth, Undressed is recording an impressive impact. In its first month, more than 42,000 people visited the website and stayed on average for more than two-and-a-half minutes, 40% more dwell time than on Canesten’s branded website, showing that we’re offering relevant and engaging content. To-date the teaching materials have been downloaded 1,000 times, demonstrating high engagement already.
To date, across social we have reached 3.4M people, received 5.6K (5,576) reacts and 36.4K likes. We have also received positive comments highlighting the impact of this initiative. One user commented: “Thank you for the fact that this even exists. It gives the opportunity for people to actually get educated on these kinds of things and normalises vulval and vaginal health.” – Lucy, 23
The work has secured coverage across national, consumer and marketing trade titles across the UK (including The Times, The Sun, The Express, Cosmopolitan and Women’s Health) Europe, US, Asia and Australia. With 60 pieces of targeted coverage so far, the work has reached a media coverage audience of 91 million, with 547+ media coverage engagements.
Daria Costantini, Brand Lead for Canesten, Bayer Consumer Health UK says: “I am so proud of what we have delivered via the Truth, Undressed programme and I’m excited to see how young people and schools will use this unique resource as it continues to run into 2023. It’s truly a first-of-its-kind. By empowering young people with a vagina to look after their health through uncensored access to honest content, we’re paving the way for better vulval and vaginal health across the nation now and for the future.”