Channel 4 will air Tena’s award-winning campaign tonight (April 29), as the incontinence brand aims to ‘create a new narrative’ for menopause and tackle ‘female ageism’.
Tena won the sixth Diversity in Advertising award from Channel 4 in October, which last year asked the marketing industry to create advertising that would challenge ageism in advertising. The brand raked in £1m of free advertising on Channel 4.
Designed by creative agency AMV BBDO, the ‘#LastLonelyMenopause’ campaign shines a light on some of the realities of menopause in a way never before seen in UK TV advertising.
Directed by Shannon Murphy and produced by Lief, the two-minute film tells the story of a mother and daughter as the mother navigates menopause. It builds on the idea that menopause is seen as puberty in reverse and describes menopause as the “second coming of age.”
It shows the “painfully relatable” but rarely seen realities of menopause, from rogue beard hairs and night sweats to hormonal rage and weak bladder. The ad is one of the only bladder weakness ads to show urine on screen.
Meta Redstedt, Tena’s global senior brand and communications director, says the brand is “proud” to create a “new narrative” for menopause, which hopes to start “important conversations” in homes across the country.
“Tena challenges female ageism, presents a modern perspective on the lives of middle-aged women, champions their participation in society and their representation in culture,” she says.
Channel 4 chief revenue officer Veriça Djurdjevic adds that the ad is a ‘revolutionary’ take on menopause, using the central idea of talking about menopause as a way to ‘break the stigma and silence around it “.
The announcement is part of a larger campaign, developed with AMV BBDO and Ketchum PR, which will use social content, influencer activity and the “infrequently asked questions guide”, available on the Tena Women website. .
Channel 4’s annual Diversity in Advertising Award provides the winning campaign with £1m worth of commercial airtime across the entire channel portfolio of Channel 4’s commercial arm, 4Sales, including its service streaming All 4.
It was originally created to encourage the advertising industry to adopt inclusive creative campaigns and extend Channel 4’s leadership in diversity beyond its editorial content and into commercial breaks.
Each year the industry challenges to tackle a different topic. Ageism was chosen for the 2021 contest as research showed that people over 50 feel overwhelmingly misrepresented in the majority of ads, with 72% of respondents believing that people their age in ads were outdated stereotypes.
“Channel 4 exists to create change through entertainment, and we do that by representing unknown voices and challenging society,” says Djurdjevic.
“Through our annual Diversity in Advertising Award, we are committed to continuing to challenge the advertising industry to authentically reflect all of society in their television advertisements to ensure that the UK’s incredible diversity Uni is reflected not only in our programming, but also in our commercial breaks. ”
The announcement will be launched at 8:10 p.m. tonight. Channel 4 has extended this year’s award with a £100,000 digital short series produced by 4Studio Productions, due to launch on May 9.
This year’s finalists included Hidden Hearing, Baileys, Shelter and Boots. The five finalists will be offered matching funding of up to £250,000 each to encourage the production of the campaigns launched.
