Background

Libresse is a feminine care brand that believes in creating a world where women can live the life they want, by breaking V-Zone (female reproductive system) taboos. The brief from the brand therefore was how do we get the women of Malaysia (a highly conservative Muslim country) to be open about understanding and speaking about their V-Zones without fear of being stigmatised? The objective of doing so would be a progressive Muslim country where the diverse women (and men) of Malaysia would stop period shaming one another and break V-Zone taboos and acknowledge it as a biologically natural part of being a woman.

Describe the cultural / social / political climate in your region and the significance of your campaign within this context

Unlike western or other Asian countries, the marketing of feminine care products (unless the commercial originated from another country) is a highly sensitive matter in Malaysia where the exposure of just even the woman’s bare arms or shoulders are frowned upon. More often than not, should a Muslim woman chance revealing more than what’s socially accepted, whether it be through conversation or personal physical expression, she could be either criticised or persecuted for it. But even in such a stifling environment, Malaysia is struggling to grow and is rapidly becoming a progressive nation where women are more and more critical and essential in all aspects of the development of the country. This thus creates a rather deep divide of conflicting conservative and progressive mindsets amongst the women and men of Malaysia.

Describe the creative idea

The idea was to get all Malaysian women, be it Malay, Chinese or Indian, to really “look” at themselves and to get to “Know Your V” like it was someone they just met, and ultimately appreciate...for better or worse.

Describe the strategy

From interviews, women aged 18-35 were found to be more than happy to champion empowerment, but there was much hesitation when it came to personal feminine care. Many were found to have poor sexual health knowledge. An alarming discovery was that 2 in 3 women interviewed had not truly seen their vulva. Even in private, Malaysian women were ashamed to look, let alone understand facts about their own body. Interestingly the ones who did, reported higher levels of self-confidence, and were more proactive in seeking out such knowledge. This lead to the insight of getting the less informed women to confront the sight of their own vulva as the mental gateway to self-acceptance. To ease them on this path, we took the approach of normalising two things which were often perceived as shameful. First was to seek information on sexual health. Second was the sight of their own vulva.

Describe the execution

The idea was crystalised as a short 60 sec film showcasing real everyday Malaysian women from the 3 main ethnicities bravely “looking” or individually confronting their physical V-Zones in various relatable public and personal situations. As budgets were constrained and the country was in lock down at the height of when the COVID 19 pandemic was surging earlier this year, the film was released only on the 3 social platforms it has presence in, namely Youtube, Facebook and Instagram.

Describe the results / impact

The film received backlash upon release. Conservatives criticised the brand for pushing the boundaries too far, branding shame and boycott of Libresse’s products. The silver lining was that for every negative remark made, there were double the positive comments and support for women to finally advocate the breaking of V-Zone taboos. And since the launch of the film, the brand’s Kantar World Panel study dated on October 2020, tracked the brand’s market share had grown by 6.4%, at a time when the pandemic was affecting other brands in the category negatively. Essity, the holding company for Libresse also performed a study to measure how the values that Libresse attributed to, whereby it is “a brand that helps me feel confident in my social life” and “helps me live my life as I want to” was ranked lower than no.10 in 2016, has now surged to no.2, in 2020.