period advertising remains tone deaf - somehow
Noticed: 28 May 2026
Location: Northern Line, TFL
Women's health
Women's health
This advert stood out to me because it sets itself apart from most period advertising.
The toned, tanned, wet-haired model sports a skimpy black bikini, red football trainers, and Charli-xcx sunglasses. The point of the tag line is how she answers the phone; ‘Leaks? Don’t know them.’
As we have seen in a few of the advertisements I have captured, Gen Z terminology and rhetoric is used. Which immediately reframes this product as cooler, in tune with what is trendy, and distinct from your traditional Tampax and Always.
This girl is pictured looking hot and chilling by the pool. This is refreshing for us when so many period adverts up to now have been all about what you can achieve despite menstruating.
Completing a triathlon, climbing a mountain, or leading a corporate meeting like Tampax’s current TV advert, all trace back to the same, tired core message, ‘you can have it all girl!’
As the leading providers of sanitary products in the UK, Always and Tampax do hold a pretty captive market. We need their products, so we have kind of had to put up with tone deaf advertising that doesn’t reflect reality.
(Before I go on, I hope somebody tells Always and Tampax that most of their market can’t actually relate to conquering traditionally male-dominated fields like sport and business. Even the ones who can, probably wouldn’t include a Tampon in their acceptance speech. Please get real).
So yes, it is nice to see that you can also enjoy being as unbothered as this girl is while bleeding.
But again – why the false positivity. Why are we still trying to celebrate something that is the worst part of most women’s month.
For me, even though it is a bit better than others, this advert still symbolises the core issue for women’s health: not being taken seriously.
Women’s health in public discussion has always felt limited to pregnancy, contraception and breast cancer. Whereas menstrual health, endometriosis, and menopause have been comparatively rejected in public interest and research.
How do we know? Reports of pain being dismissed as normal, symptoms that don’t go away, and having to repeatedly enquire for help, are no longer anecdotal themes. They have finally been recognised as a policy issue, to the extent the renewed Women’s Health Strategy now reports to place women’s voices at the centre of care. Lo and behold, around 1 in 10 women are thought to suffer with endometriosis, when on average, diagnosis has taken between 8 to 9 years.
Evidently, the reality is really contrasting the media in question. Sure, I do believe we can still enjoy those days in the month and even look that good doing it. But why is that the message, when this part of womanhood involves pain, inconvenience, discomfort, unreliable medical care, and to top it all off – advertising that says you can swim the channel anyway?
I encourage sanitary manufacturers to think about who they’re speaking to, instead of how to meme up their campaigns. You may simply intend to keep one of the biggest downsides to our gender light-hearted, but in my view, you miss an opportunity to be part of the good fight.
