Title	#LIPCONFESSION
Brand	THE FEMALE COMPANY GMBH
Product/Service	ORGANIC TAMPONS
Category	A01. Glass
Entrant	BBDO Düsseldorf, GERMANY
Idea Creation	BBDO Düsseldorf, GERMANY
Idea Creation 2	BBDO Berlin, GERMANY
Media Placement	HEARTS & SCIENCE Düsseldorf, GERMANY
Media Placement 2	AREASOLUTIONS Hamburg, GERMANY
PR	FLEISHMANHILLARD Frankfurt, GERMANY

Name	Company	Position
Till Diestel	BBDO Group Germany GmbH	Chief Creative Officer
Kristoffer Heilemann	BBDO Düsseldorf GmbH	Creative Managing Director
Jeannette Bohné	BBDO Berlin GmbH	Creative Director
Tatjana Genin	BBDO Düsseldorf GmbH	Art Director
Anina Wäsche	BBDO Düsseldorf GmbH	Art Director
Lisa-Marie Jaeger	BBDO Düsseldorf GmbH	Art Director
Henrik van Laak	BBDO Düsseldorf GmbH	Copywriter
Matthäus Kania	BBDO Düsseldorf GmbH	Copywriter
Cornelius Kölblin	BBDO Düsseldorf GmbH	Managing Director
Fabian Brakelmann	BBDO Düsseldorf GmbH	Account Manager
Michelle Grossheim	BBDO Düsseldorf GmbH	Senior Strategist
- -	CraftWork - a brand of ad agencyservices GmbH	Production-/Post Production Company
Steffen Gentis	BBDO Group Germany GmbH	Chief Production Officer
Sabrina Neuhaus	CraftWork - a brand of ad agencyservices GmbH	Producer
Valérie Gentis	CraftWork - a brand of ad agencyservices GmbH	Producer
Hajo Müller	-	Photographer
- -	PremiumBeat	Music/ Sound Design
Tibor Salzburger	CraftWork - a brand of ad agencyservices GmbH	Director Of Photography
Florian Lubeniqi-Wurzer	Super36 Film-und Videoproduktion GbR	Director Of Photography
Kai Thorarensen	CraftWork - a brand of ad agencyservices GmbH	Editor
Isabell Kaeppele	CraftWork - a brand of ad agencyservices GmbH	Digital Media Designer

Background

The Female Company is a young start-up for organic tampons that strives for an open minded society when it comes to feminine body and its hygiene. Unfortunately, it’s still loaded with prejudices, clichés and also deter people from getting comfortable with their body. The challenge was to create an attention-grabbing campaign that raises awareness not only for the Female Company’s launch of organic tampons at the drugstore retail partner dm but also for an absolute natural topic: Menstruation.

Describe the cultural / social / political climate in your region and the significance of your campaign within this context

Menstruation is still a taboo topic in Germany. 77% of women feel uncomfortable talking about their period. The majority thinks it’s disgusting, a private thing that shouldn’t be a topic of conversation in advertising and in public in general. That’s an issue for “The Female Company” whose communication is also often flooded with many negative comments.

Describe the creative idea

Our answer: #lipconfession – a provocative campaign which breaks this taboo by openly talking about periods in a natural manner – as natural as the organic tampons from “The Female Company” itself.

Describe the strategy

Creating a campaign with a rather medium-term impact, designed to raise awareness for the Female Company’s product launch. It’s dedicated to all women in Germany who blush with shame very quickly when it comes to menstruation and all those who are self-confident about their body and the right hygiene products. A campaign which is also kind of a proclamation to open everyone’s lips as loud as possible and make it clear that women can never be told to seal them.

Describe the execution

The campaign’s kick-off featured a 100 m² huge billboard in the heart of Berlin from 14th to 21st September. It showed lips rotated vertically by 90° – looking like lips of the vulva – designed to start a discussion around the issues associated with menstruation. Shortly after we published our motifs also on Instagram, where they were censored. But the community took a stand against the censorship. They rotated their own lips by 90° degrees and posted them with their personal #lipconfession in the social channels. We used influencers as a catalyst to further advance this movement trying to free itself from such a taboo, by opening their lips and speaking openly about menstruation.

Describe the results / impact

Our Out of-Home billboard was the starting signal for a movement on social media. With the invitation to talk about a taboo topic openly, our hashtag sparked a discussion and broke the taboo with the help of the users - in a surprising and unusual way. Hundreds of thousands saw our campaign, hundreds shared their #lipconfession and thousands clicked the like button to make it clear that women can never be told to seal their lips. “The Female Company's” organic tampons were sold out in many dm markets. Furthermore, this work became a part of pop culture. #lipconfession was discussed on public TV channels at prime time - for us it’s the evidence that there is still a need to talk about menstruation in our society, especially for an organic tampon start-up.