Mumbai: This Daughters Day, Stayfree has unveiled its latest digital activation, continuing its mission to normalize period conversations in India.
Last year, during the casting for Stayfree’s campaign “Beta Stayfree Le Aana”, nearly 70% of parents refused to let their sons be part of the film. Concerns ranged from boys being too young to learn about menstrual hygiene to fears of ridicule from peers. These rejections highlighted the very stigma the brand seeks to address.
In its new campaign, conceptualized by DDB Mudra, Stayfree re-engages with some of these parents through a candid social experiment featuring content creator Linda Fernandes and her teenage son. The film showcases how open dialogue can slowly transform hesitation and stigma into acceptance, carrying forward the campaign’s core message: “When we make our sons comfortable with periods, we make our daughters comfortable too.”
Stayfree’s larger “It’s Just a Period” initiative has, for over five years, consistently championed healthy period conversations within families — first by encouraging fathers, then by asking parents to talk to sons, and finally with bold steps like #BetaStayfreeLeAana.
Manoj Gadgil, Vice President, Marketing and Business Unit Head – Essential Health, Kenvue, said, “For the last five years, Stayfree has been committed to normalizing period conversations to create a world where no girl feels shame, fear, or discomfort about periods. When building our last campaign, ‘Beta Stayfree Le Aana,’ 70% of parents were hesitant to allow their sons to feature in the film because they were uncomfortable with the idea of boys being casted in a period ad. This reinforced the need for us to continue breaking these barriers and social stigmas associated with periods. So, this year, we went back to some of these parents to see if our efforts were working. The response we got inspired this film. This is a campaign, but the change is REAL. That is all we wish for.”
Harshada Menon & Siddhesh Khatavkar, Executive Creative Directors, DDB Mudra, added, “In the past, whenever we sent casting calls for ads with boys, parents were more than happy to say yes. But when we sent the Stayfree script, most of them rejected it completely. We realized that those very rejections could become a powerful campaign. So, we went back to the same parents to have a conversation and to see if they’d changed their minds. The ‘Rejections to Conversations Stayfree Ad’ asks a simple but powerful question – if we’re okay with our sons appearing in ads for clothes, shoes, or chocolates, shouldn’t we be okay with them in sanitary napkin ads too?”
Through this initiative, Stayfree reaffirms its commitment to sparking real conversations that dismantle taboos and build a more open, accepting world for girls and women.
Credits:
Brand: Stayfree
Agency: DDB Mudra Group
Brand Team: Manoj Gadgil, Supriya Srinivas, Saumya Chaturvedi, Prabhdeep Kaur, Dipti Naithani
Creative: Rahul Mathew, Harshada Menon, Siddhesh Khatavkar, Jyotsna Mohanty, Sahiti Gurram, Aniket Sawate, Tanvi Akkaraju, Jena Shah
Business: Saad Khan, Pooja Mehta, Priyanshu Dikshit, Nidhi Nair, Kanchan Joshi
Strategy: Shashank Lanjekar, Atreyi Nag, Mrudul Mande, Nistha Ojha
