Amber Rose Positions Periods as a Luxury in This Ad Protesting the 'Tampon Tax'

Fun facts about periods: They hurt. Your literally feel as if your sex organs are being juiced from the inside. They are messy. Every woman who's ever had a period has stained a bedsheet. If she's lucky, she's only stained bedsheets, and only bedsheets that belong to her. Over the course of a lifetime, it's pretty rare to find someone who's been lucky. Any visible expression of negative emotion makes people wonder whether you're on it. So, like the Holy Ghost, periods are pretty much always with you ... even when they're not. Off birth control, they're difficult to schedule—a surprise you can count on having every month, usually when it's least convenient. They're expensive. They're expensive. They're expensive. (Remember: We're also paid less!) That's why Amber Rose keeps her tampons on a diamond chain around her neck. [kickout id="2"] Brought to you by Period Equity and created pro-bono by J. Walter Thompson New York with The Sweet Shop’s Melanie Bridge, "Periods are not a luxury. Period" is meant to incite as much emotion as awareness. It does it with ludicrous contrast—the better to demonstrate a core basic is not a luxury—and a polarizing figure: Amber Rose, a former stripper and self-proclaimed slut. (More on that later.) A whopping 36 U.S. states subject women to what's called a "tampon tax," which is actually state sales tax. That doesn't sound like a big deal until you consider two things: State tax can vary, averaging over 6 percent and reaching as high as 10.25 percent in cities like Chicago (once city and county surcharges are included), and the tax excludes items that are considered "necessities," like food and medicine. So a tampon tax actually refers to the judgment call that's been made about what people buy for fun versus what they need. Who decided half the population didn't need to manage the blood that comes out of their genitals? Probably not women. (In California's case, it was Governor Jerry Brown.) The strategic decision to work with Amber Rose will also resonate for the women, young and old, who care about who she is. The American model and actress broke the mainstream when she started dating Kanye West in 2009. People speculated about her stripper past, her gold-digging predilections or—wait for it!—whether she's a lesbian. None of this should surprise anyone, except that Rose has made good with the spotlight she's been given. She's addressed the rumors head-on, talking about sexuality as a spectrum. She defends other women, notably Blac Chyna, another former stripper whose ex-fiancé shared nude photos of her on the internet because, well, why not. She's also decided to reclaim the word slut, best illustrated by her participation in SlutWalk—where she most recently dressed as a totally positive Captain Save a Hoe. (Her new boyfriend, 21 Savage, also supported her ... by carrying a sign that reads "I'm a hoe, too.") In short, there's no one better to represent the copy that closes this ad, which reads, "Tell the government where to stick this tax.” Because it doesn't really matter whether or not the tax impacts you; as Period Equity so neatly expresses, a tampon tax is a tax on half the populace for something that is a necessity—not a preference, like keeping a bottle of Nikka in the cupboard behind your desk. And if you're not won by the argument, here's homework. Read it. Research it. Understand it. Every woman in your life, including me, is pretty sick of explaining why you can't jury-rig an everyday solution to menstrual flow in the same way you can replace a Band-Aid—especially when you consider that every GOP attempt to repeal Obamacare removes contraceptive services, arguably one of the easiest ways of either controlling menstruation, or—for some, and short of a yearly pregnancy until menopause—ensuring you don't have it at all. Seriously, what do you expect us to do—use rags and sit in a red tent? CREDITS Client: Period Equity Founder: Jennifer Weiss-Wolf Founder: Laura Strausfeld Agency: J. Walter Thompson New York Chief Creative Officer: Brent Choi Executive Creative Director: Sarah Barclay Creative Director: Yana Hunt Copywriter: Danielle White Copywriter: Christopher Phillips Head of Production: Anthony Nelson Agency Producer: Gillian Blain Global President: Claire Capeci Account Manager: Adaire Carey Global Planning Director: Marina Pen Project Manager: Drazen Kupres Production Company: The Sweet Shop Director: Melanie Bridge Executive Producer: Laura Thoel Bidding Producer: Carolyn Pedrossian Line Producer: Michelle Stark Director of Photography: Danny Ruhlmann Production Designer: Erin Dallesandro Still Photographer: Howard Wise Editorial: Beast Editor: Lindsey Nadolski Executive Producer: Melissa Lubin Color Grading: Company 3 Senior Colorist: Sofie Borup Music: Amber Music Producer/Music Supervisor: Mike Perri EP/Music Creative Director: Michelle Curran Audio Mix: Heard City Engineer: Jodi Levine Voice Talent: Lindsey Kaufman

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Amber Rose Positions Periods as a Luxury in This Ad Protesting the 'Tampon Tax'

Where else would you stick it?

Angela Natividad

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Angela Natividad