It’s a good question: “Why is it that the blood of violence and death is acceptable for us to witness, but the blood of life and creation is not?” Kotex is going all-out to answer it with a documentary that takes the history of “menstrual art” very seriously indeed.
David London and Ogilvy Singapore’s campaigning film is splattered with examples of paintings created by women from their own blood. Going all the way back to the first cave paintings, Kotex gets righteous about male dominance and violence through the ages.
Genevieve Gransden, ECD at David London, says: “Visibility shapes culture, and we set out to change both,” while her fellow ECD Selma Ahmed comments that “This is not just a campaign. It is a restoration of voices, narrative and art that deserves to be seen.”
It’s a well put together piece (thankfully created mostly by women, although the first two credits are men) with some powerful voices, but the tone is so overwhelmingly earnest that it starts to venture into spoof territory.
After all, Kotex is selling sanitary protection and periods aren’t all about the mysteries of creation; they’re an everyday reality as Libresse has captured only too well. (Full eight minutes below.)
MAA creative scale: 7
