Posted by Social Media Intern Michelle Auster
If you’ve ever been a kid at summer camp, you know why Hello Flo — a company that allows parents to sign up their daughters for period care packages while they’re away from home — is a good idea. The company’s care packages come equipped with all their menstruation needs, and they even come with candy (it just gets better). As a seasoned veteran of summer camps myself, I can testify that something like this would have been far more welcome than the horrific, impractical stock of menstruation supplies they kept at the infirmary.
But Hello Flo isn’t just a genius business idea. The company also happens to have one of the best, most girl-positive advertising campaigns we’ve seen in years. Observe:
All together now: thank goodness an ad like this, marketed to girls, finally exists. It’s high time somebody created an advertisement about periods without any shameful stigma attached. It’s honest, empowering, and hilarious.
Unlike most ads that deal with periods, “Camp Gyno” is refreshingly free of the usual vague and unrealistic portrayal of menstruation we’ve come to expect from ads that address the existence of periods. “Camp Gyno” doesn’t skate around the subject. It thankfully skips out on the euphemisms, opting to actually say “vagina” rather than some childish slang. And for a company marketing to younger girls, that’s pretty darn revolutionary considering many advertising campaigns for adult women can’t even say it. Take, for example, Summer’s Eve, with their self-censored slogan, “Hail to the V.” But “Camp Gyno” is no such shrinking violet. Gone are the cartwheeling cheerleaders, the smiling yogis, and the slow motion dancers on the beach, and perhaps best of all, we don’t see any blue liquid being poured onto a pad. Last time I checked, blood is, in fact, red.
It’s important that young girls are knowledgeable about their periods, and know how to respond to having a period with confidence and humor, unfettered by shame or absurd ideas about beach-dancing in white outfits. It’s wonderful to see an ad that encourages girls to be respectful toward their bodies, and to not treat menstruation like some shameful, secretive process that must be hidden. Anyone who thinks otherwise is seriously misinformed about female anatomy, and is still feeding into the patriarchal brainwashing of period advertising which unfortunately continues to be the norm. To all other companies who rely on women’s periods to turn a profit: step up. You’re being shown up by a 10-year-old.
A Few Choice Words 