Adam & Eve/DDB, social enterprise Hey Girls and The Big Issue have teamed up to raise awareness of how poverty-stricken girls and young women are being forced into using unhygienic and unsafe alternatives to sanitary products.
Adam & Eve/DDB has created a range of branded products for Hey Girls that appear to resemble genuine sanitary products, but on closer inspection are revealed to be unsanitary alternatives used by some women, such as socks, newspaper and loo roll.
The agency has created a launch film for the range, which was on display at pop-ups in selected Asda stores on 15 February.
Meanwhile, The Big Issue has created a 24-page special magazine about periods, menstrual products, poverty, activism and the environment. It will be included with copies of the main title sold by vendors across the UK. Hey Girls' own community of supporters will also be distributing copies of the mini-magazine.
This is Hey Girls’ biggest campaign to date and is being supported by digital out-of-home company Clear Channel, which will carry advertising on its screens in shopping centres nationwide and at its Storm site in London.
The "UNsanitary" marketing drive highlights the finding that one in 10 girls and young women are suffering from "period poverty". Hey Girls' supports girls and women in need with (actual) sanitary products on a buy-one-give-one system.
Celia Hodson, founder of Hey Girls, said: "We created ‘UNsanitary’ to provoke awareness about the shocking extent of period poverty in the UK. Progress is being made, but we knew we needed to do something drastic for large numbers of people to take notice of what so many women and girls are going through. We hope the campaign will rally businesses and the government to instigate more radical changes."
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