This Is the First Ad to Show Red Period Blood and Not Weird Blue Dye

Believe it or not, up until 2016, a real-life sanitary pad had never been seen in an ad before. This is despite the fact they're a product some women use every single month.

Bodyform changed all that with their revolutionary ad — and here we are again, one year later, when they're challenging an entirely different taboo: period blood itself. And they're tackling it head on, by featuring it twice in their latest ad. Take a look, it's pretty cool:

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Bodyform has long known that periods shouldn't be something women — or men, for that matter — should shy away from discussing. They're just another part of ordinary life. So now they're working on reminding the rest of the world of that with their #bloodnormal campaign. And where better to start than with mainstream advertising?

The groundbreaking ad depicts period blood in two different forms. Firstly, with a realistic red liquid being poured from a test-tube onto a pad to demonstrate absorbency, instead of the usual blue liquid we see. Secondly, we see period blood running down a woman's leg while she's showering, alongside scenes of a man very casually popping into a shop to buy a pack of pads. And here's the best bit: he's not squeamishly hiding them underneath a bundle of lads mags in an attempt to remind the shopkeeper of his masculinity. He's just ... buying them.

The ad follows research carried out by the sanitary-wear brand which indicated that one in five women felt their confidence had been damaged because periods weren't discussed openly.

"We know that the 'period taboo' is damaging," said Traci Baxter, marketing manager at Bodyform. "It means people are more likely to struggle with the effects of period poverty, whilst others struggle with their mental health and wellbeing. As a leader in feminine hygiene, we want to change this by challenging the taboo and ultimately removing the stigma, making it even easier for anyone to talk about periods, now and in the future."

Good job, you guys.