Bodyform's new 'womb lives' commercial pushes ad land boundaries

Living with a womb isn't the same for each woman – it brings with itself utmost happiness and also the deepest heartbreaks. But, every aspect of these 'womb stories' deserves to be heard.

Bodyform, a brand of feminine hygiene products (known as Libresse outside the U.K.), has launched a new campaign called #wombstories. Emotive and raw, it shines a light on moments that most ads don't tread near.

There are scenes of soiled underwear, period pain, IVF, miscarriage, pregnancy, birth, pleasure, and of course, red blood – something most ads have shied away from depicting and instead settled for the colour blue.

Created by UK based creative agency Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, the agency has garnered praise for the ad because it depicts exactly what women go through. An interesting aspect of the ad is the woman's choice to not have children (there's a scene where the woman is happy to see period blood because she'd recently made out with a guy).

Adding to the ad's pull is the use of animation that successfully delivers and illustrates the life of a woman with a womb especially the depiction of period pain... According to Creativebloq, VFX studio Framestore is behind the animation.

Last year, Bodyform's 'Viva La Vulva' garnered tremendous appreciation for depicting how female genitalia doesn't look the same and also busted myths around it.

One of the more striking points was the clear depiction of red blood regarding periods. It began in 2017 when Bodyform released the ad 'Blood Normal' and said, "Contrary to popular belief, women don’t bleed blue liquid, they bleed blood. Periods are normal. Showing them should be too." In India, it was Nobel Hygiene's heavy-duty pad RIO that first depicted red blood in its advert.

Bodyform summed it up when it said at the end of its ad, "The pleasure. The pain. The love. The hate. It's never simple. Let our #Wombstories be heard."