How One of Today's Boldest Marketers Is Shattering Stigmas Inflicted on Women Worldwide

Essity, maker of Bodyform and Libresse, is rewriting the rules on how ads talk about periods, vulvas and more

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LONDON—For decades, marketing around women’s periods and genitals has often been laughably unrealistic at best and destructively shame-inducing at its worst.

In 2017, Essity dramatically dumped out the blue liquid and other ridiculous tropes of tampon and pad advertising with the launch of #BloodNormal, a campaign nearly unprecedented in its ambition to rewrite an entire category of marketing aimed at 51% of the world’s population.

On Thursday, the company’s newest campaign—”Viva La Vulva,” created in 2018 to promote a new line of washes and wipes—was

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