“We need to be as subtle as possible but also in your face. This balance is the challenge but also the fun in it,” Lewin said.
Fem-tech company Elvie, which makes a wearable breast pump and a pelvic floor trainer, must also think outside the box to skirt ad bans. Censorship of its content on social media has been “one of our biggest obstacles as a brand,” said Fiona Dunleavy, Elvie’s global brand director.
In 2022, Elvie set up a “breastfeeding bench” in places across Europe, including near the Eiffel Tower in Paris, where breastfeeding in public is still seen as taboo. That same year, it erected a 20-foot billboard in London that leaked water to raise awareness of incontinence. A real woman who deals with incontinence–and whose posts on TikTok about the topic had been removed by the platform–appeared in the ad.
Such campaigns generated press coverage and social media engagement, said Dunleavy, explaining that the brand often relies on offline stunts “where we don’t have to compromise on creative execution.”
Nevertheless, Dunleavy expressed frustration at the additional obstacles that female-focused brands like hers must confront to convey their messages. Elvie’s team goes through a “laborious process” with platforms like Meta and TikTok to approve the content of their ads. Some have still been deemed explicit or banned, yet she contrasted that with men’s sexual health brands like Hims, which has been able to run paid ads on Facebook for its erectile dysfunction pill.
“There does appear to be a gendered double standard,” Dunleavy said. “We need to shift consumer behavior, because women’s health has been ignored for so long, but there’s still a long way to go in destigmatizing this space.”
A balancing act
While many female-focused brands resort to daring marketing tactics, they must also walk a tightrope between getting noticed and alienating audiences.
Essity brand Bodyform has a long history of navigating this challenge through advertising its menstrual products. In 2017, with its “Blood Normal” campaign by agency AMV BBDO, it became the first U.K. advertiser to depict real menstrual blood.
