Mumbai: Whisper is finally keeping it real. India’s leading sanitary napkin and personal hygiene brand has debuted its new commercial using realistic red fluid- not blue- depicting period blood for what it is. Bloody red, of course.

About time too. It's 2021 for period’s sake. The ubiquitous blue-coloured liquid has been used in ads promoting feminine hygiene products for far too long.

The new ad for Whisper Ultra, which claims to be endowed with herbal oil that not only locks wetness but odour too, is otherwise unremarkable, showcasing the usual tropes of a sanitary pad ad- a happy looking girl going about her job with extra enthusiasm.

Where it breaks new ground is when it shows the pad absorbency, using an authentic-looking red fluid in place of the usual sanitised ink-blue liquid. The brand had used red before too, in an animated video ad launched in November 2020, but it had less of an impact being an animation.

The Feminine Hygiene Products Market in India is valued at Rs. 25.02 billion in 2018 and is expected to reach INR 58.62 billion by 2024, expanding at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of ~14.92 per cent, during the 2019-2024 period, as per a ResearchAndMarkets report.

The report also revealed that Whisper by P&G Hygiene & Health Care held the largest market share at a cool 51.42 per cent, followed by Stayfree and Kotex in 2018.

For the country’s biggest brand to take this maiden step of normalising periods and menstruation is nothing short of a giant leap for the Indian consumer market. Growing awareness about intimate hygiene and increase in preference for sanitary products like tampons and panty liners have garnered a huge demand for feminine hygiene products in the country. The entry of new players and start-ups is also expanding the feminine hygiene products market in India.

In fact, the credit for breaking this age-old misleading practice of using blue liquid in commercials goes to a much lesser-known homegrown brand. Nobel Hygiene’s RIO, which was the first sanitary pad brand that woke up to the challenge in India and realistically portrayed 'period blood' in red, instead of blue on TV.

The viral ad featuring actor Radhika Apte launched in July last year was path-breaking in many ways, tackling most of the uncomfortable truths associated with menstruation but which are usually brushed under the carpet by most commercials keen to show a happier-than-thou picture perfect version. For someone who has no knowledge of periods, it wouldn’t be surprising if these ads made them believe that women indeed bleed blue and that periods are effortless!

However, conversations around the subject are still hush-hush in public and even in families sometimes, despite it being a normal biological function affecting half of human-kind. Sanitary napkins continue to be wrapped up in sanitised brown paper, lest its offensive contents be visible to the public eye.

In March this year, The Body Shop India had launched a campaign ‘Periods are #BloodyNatural’ calling out to end period shame and break taboos and stereotypes around it.

The campaign, featuring actor Shraddha Kapoor talked about how it's been normal for society to shame periods, giving out the much-needed message: “But periods are #BloodyNatural. It is society that's strange. We at The Body Shop India believe that a conversation can change the world. It's time to talk about periods as the natural phenomena that they are. #DropThePWord into your conversation to end period stigma.”

Recently, a Thai-origin brand called SANITA also came up with an Indian ad that promotes awareness and openness about the product. It gave out a pertinent message, while also taking a potshot at the giant in the category- the tagline for the brand went “There’s nothing to Whisper about it”! We agree!

It goes without saying that brands hold the power to drive change in society and start that much-needed conversation. Here’s hoping that more companies join P&G's Whisper, wake up and realise that blood has always been red. Let's normalise talking about something that's a very basic biological function. Period!