Indian Sanitary Napkin Ads: No Change to Some Change by Shivangi Saxena

  

Indian Sanitary Napkin ads: No change to some change

Shivangi Saxena

 

 

Menstrual health has taken a backseat in the list of our institutional priorities for the longest time in India. As many as 23 million girls drop out of school every year. The main cause behind it can be attributed to lack of awareness and information among the Indian households and schools. 

Television advertisements are one of the strongest tools of educating the Indian audience. We have several sanitary napkin brands which pay huge sums of money to air their brands. However, we need to critically engage and try to understand what exactly is being shown in these ads? And has there been any transition in the content of the ads over the period of time? 

For years, period ads have focused on the fact that people should be discreet about their flow like it's something to be ashamed of. National Association of broadcasters allowed sanitary napkins to be advertised on television only in 1972. Despite getting the green light, brands were restricted from what they could say on air and could not make any reference to absorbency, insertion, comfort, application and anatomy.Pad was never marketed as a necessity but always as a source of comfort and hygiene. In India, napkins often came with belts, implying that they would particularly be suited to women wearing petticoats and salwars. 

Economic liberalization eventually saw broadening of the consumer base. It effectively led to a revamp of the organized sector, largely dominated by multinationals. In 1990, the industry leader was Johnson and Johnson with its Carefree and Stayfree with its adhesive based pads.  In 1992 Proctor and Gamble launched whisper. In 1996, Latex re-entered the market as an attractive price brand. 

In 1995, there were demands in Maharashtra to ban “vulgar” ads on Doordarshan on grounds of obscenity. Sample surveys of sanitary napkins were sought to be stopped. The fact is they did not stopped such programs on the condition of replacing menstruating women's red blood with blue ink. 

A timeline of change

In 2007, in its ad Stayfree showed woman in a progressive limelight. It showed her working in an office. The blood was represented blue. But the focus of the ad was to sell the napkin at an economic cost as low as Rs.20. 

A Bengali ad in 2009 showed women not going out on family outing because she felt “unsafe” about her periods which is a natural biological process. The pad advertised itself as a product that is odor free and has absorbent qualities.

In another ad it showed a normal Indian household when there used to be a time when women were (very much still) felt shy revealing that she is menstruating. The young girl goes to her mother and asks for bringing pads. The mother tells the father who brings just any brand’s pads. Mind that he brings it in a brown color covered packaging. Showing how sanitary napkins are hidden. 

In a Johnson and Johnson ad, a mother is shown with her “grown up” daughter who is encouraged to wear a sanitary pad so that the daughter can feel “safe and secure”. The slogan of the campaign was, ‘the time is changing now and so is she.’ but the blood has not changed to red from white drops

In 2010, Manforce’s Don't worry sanitary pads advertisement saw a glamorous outreach.  It showed gossiping women, bitching about the engagement of their friend. One of the girls threw the engagement ring inside the pool. The other girl throws the pad into the pool which absorbs all the water.  The idea was repeated in subsequent ads of that time. 

In the same year, 2010, BeSure sanitary napkin used the same idea to trick the audience by showing women in ultra- glamorous looks and using pad to take revenge from men who conned her.

 However the pool ads are used commonly now and then. In a most recent ad of 2017, Sofy came up with another idea of using the pool by showing absorbent qualities and dryness of the product. But it seems that Indian audiences still feel offended by seeing a vagina on TV. The ad represented a bottle opening as vagina.

In 2019, an ad by Collen showed the introduction of technology in napkins. Similarly 24 Care sanitary pads showed doctors explaining ill effects of using other sanitary pads on health. 

In 2014, Whisper choice ultra ad showed a doctor explaining to a mother who does not want to send her daughter to school when she is on periods.

It’s baffling, to say the least, that in 2020 period brands still face backlash for ’daring’ to open up the conversation surrounding menstruation. Many Multinational Corporations (MNCs) have misinterpreted periods. They showed women forgetting about menstrual pains once they use a sanitary napkin.

Another important thing is that even though some commercials tried to incorporate even men into the ads, the visual conversation remained mostly between mother and daughter or group of girls. 

Nobel Hygene’s RIO was the first brand in India that woke up to the challenge of breaking this decade-old patriarchal and misleading practice of using blue liquid in its commercials. Even its product packaging has a hint of red, unlike any other hygiene companies that usually use blue to denote they stand for ‘purity’ or cleanliness.