Cannes Lions
OGILVY, Hong Kong / WOMEN HELPING WOMEN ASIA / 2023
Overview
Entries
Credits
Background
Puberty is awkward and embarrassing for all. Yet, out of all of the changes puberty brings, it’s periods that have been surrounded by stigma, misinformation and mythology in cultures all over the world.
Women Helping Women is a collective of organisations who support educational projects that help women in their fight to freely exist and live their lives. Their goal with this campaign was to provoke open conversation about period myths – not just amongst girls, but boys too.
To engage boys in a way that makes the conversation feel relevant to them we flipped the script when it comes to all the weird and discriminatory period myths and stigmas that still exist today. We imagined what it would be like if boys were discriminated against for an equally natural development that happens to them during puberty – spontaneous erections.
Execution
This campaign flips the script on period myths, so our casting did the same.
In the films we imagine what it would be like if boys were discriminated against for an equally natural occurrence that happens to them during puberty – spontaneous erections. When it came to casting this was easier said than done when it came to such explicit material.
Following all appropriate safety measures and protocols, we began the search with over 18 male actors, but quickly realised they looked more like grown men than teenagers.
Then we wondered, if this is about gender based discrimination then why not blur the lines completely? So we cast four female actors, which also helped make our characters look the age they needed to be.
This switch made the concept even stronger, giving the audience more empathy for our characters plight and created even more conversation online between all genders.
Outcome
The purpose of the films in this series was to provoke not only girls, but most importantly boys, to join in a conversation about the unfairness of period myths, and the discrimination they cause – and provoke they did.
As soon as they launched the conversation exploded online…
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