Seeing red: adam&eveDDB’s angry ad about period poverty comes with a ‘trigger warning’
Banking on anger as the most motivating human emotion, adam&eveDDB’s new campaign for Hey Girls period products comes with a trigger warning.
It stirs up the many indignities of being a woman – catcalling, mansplaining, inappropriate texting, bitching – while dialling up the horror of period poverty, which affects one in ten.
The ad also tackles the problems of being a trans boy with a period in a heteronormative world, defining “period poverty” as “lack of access to period products due to financial or social constraints.”
Hey Girl donates one period product for every product purchased, so the brand has a powerful argument for consumers to buy its stuff. Working with a psychologist, adam&eveDDB created the film to provoke maximum anger in its audience.
The film’s soundtrack, ‘Grovelling Warts’, was composed by Esther Joy Lane and has been released as a single. Media, by the7stars, includes digital, social, and print.
Celia Hodson, founder & CEO at Hey Girls, said “There is no better feeling than doing an outstanding job while you are doing good. We’ve worked with some of the most talented and generous people to bring this campaign to life. Period Poverty is an issue they all care passionately about which is why they have collectively gifted creativity and commitment to build a campaign that is certain to move the viewer into action.”
Laura Rogers , global creative director at adam&eveDDB, said “What made this project so unique is that the idea forced us to work in a completely new way. Every creative choice was measured against one question: will it make people angry? We had to listen to the science. This sometimes put us at odds with our instincts to refine and finesse. But when it felt uncomfortable, we knew we were on the right track.”
MAA creative scale: 7.5
