“This is how you have mess free period sex.”
Flex is a period product company that felt pads and tampons were seriously outdated. They weren’t wrong, these products need to be changed every few hours, they leak, they can smell, and can be pretty uncomfortable. So, Flex created their menstrual disc, an innovative product that solved all of the issues that traditional period products come with. The disc doesn’t leak, doesn’t smell, can be worn for up to 12 hours straight, and you can use it to have mess-free period sex.
The challenge: How do you make people stop using the period product they’ve presumably been using for many years, and switch to something they’ve probably never seen or heard of before?
The solution: By making it about sex!
My responsibilities as Creative Director:
Research: Flex’s CEO had ample research and survey data to share. From the data, it was pretty clear that people who switched to Flex absolutely loved it. The product really did do what it claimed: users could change it 4x less often than tradition products, the hypoallergenic material wasn’t irritating, it didn’t leak, didn’t smell, and people were in fact having mess-free sex on their periods.
It was clear that the product was fantastic, but we had a bit of a challenge: women grow up seeing only pads and tampons as options. The people they were targeting likely had their period for a decade already, always using pads or tampons month after month. Introducing something brand new to such a solid routine can be difficult, especially when the product looks so visually different than what they' were used to.
Writing: Flex’s disc was comparable (but far superior) to pads and tampons in most ways except one: with the disc, you can have mess-free sex. That’s not an option at all with tampons or pads. We found this benefit to be particularly intriguing. Most women had no idea that mess-free period could even be an option, and we imagined that just might be a big enough benefit to hook people into our ad.
We used this sex benefit as a bold, entertaining theme to the ad. Compared to every other period commercial out there, we were completely different. Traditional companies wouldn’t dare talk about sex, or even show blood for that matter. We decided to be more matter of fact about the situation. The reality is, periods can be a little frustrating: you might leak, you might smell, you might have cramps, and you might really want to have sex but you can’t without making a huge mess. We talked about all of these things with the honesty they deserved.
Visuals: I really think we pushed boundaries with this one! I looked at all the other period commercials out there and thought, “ok - let’s do the opposite”. Traditional commercials are cutesy, very polite, never show blood, and never show discomfort. We did the opposite: we show that blood can leak through your pants, we show how uncomfortable it can be when your pad sticks to your thigh, and we even show the oh so annoying pee string.
Post-production feedback: I gave detailed feedback to our editor to help ensure the cut reflected what was intended in the script.