"If Faces Were Bleeding, Someone Would Do Something"

October is a month well known for shining a light on women’s health issues.

One topic that has come into the spotlight is period poverty: one in four women cannot afford menstrual hygiene products.

PERIOD is a non-profit organisation whose mission is to eliminate period poverty and stigma through advocacy, education and service. It was founded in 2014 by Nadya Okamoto, who is currently a junior at Harvard. This week, PERIOD is launching a new PSA as it gears up for the first-ever National Period Day on October 19.

Created pro bono by BBDO San Francisco and sponsored by Seventh Generation, the film 'SEE RED', features Stephanie Shepherd, Madame Gandhi, Krewella and more speaking passionately about the issue of period poverty. What starts as a familiar PSA soon takes a sobering turn, when these familiar faces begin bleeding. The advocates proceed to explain that as humans, we are hard-wired to respond dramatically to blood, but when that blood is hidden, it’s too easy to ignore. Not having tampons and pads means not being able to go to school or work. A menstruator's time of the month should not mean time away from the education or wages they need.

Kate Catalinac, Creative Director at BBDO San Francisco, says: “Society might be getting ever-so-slightly more comfortable acknowledging that periods exist, but until we’re ok with women free-bleeding in the streets, we better work harder to make pads and tampons accessible to all."

“Seventh Generation is committed to championing period equity through our products, our advocacy actions and the company we keep, and we’re proud to be releasing this PSA with PERIOD,” adds Ashley Orgain, global director of advocacy and sustainability at Seventh Generation.”

Youth activists are gearing up to rally nationwide on October 19, 2019 for National Period Day. The rallies will mark a single day of organized effort across all 50 states to raise awareness around the issue of period poverty, demanding accessibility to period products and calling for an end to luxury taxes on menstrual products. Currently, 35 states in the US still have a sales tax on period products considering them luxury items, while products for men’s sexual health such as Viagra are considered essential goods.

The average woman will spend an average of $11,000 in their lifetime on tampons, and one in four women struggled to afford period products in the last year, due to a lack of income. The most recent city-based study on period poverty in St. Louis revealed that “46 percent of low-income women had to choose between food and menstrual hygiene products.” PERIOD along with BBDO San Francisco and Seventh Generation are working to raise awareness on just this issue with their ‘SEE RED’ PSA.

Nadya Okamoto, founder and executive director at PERIOD, says: “It’s really phenomenal to work with such incredible partners like Seventh Generation and BBDO San Francisco to advance this Menstrual Movement. Five years ago, when I started this organization at the age of 16, I would have never dreamed of mobilizing a campaign like this, with activists in all 50 US states -- but I am feeling more fired-up than ever before, and ready for our first-ever National Period Day! 2020 is going to be big!”