Why singing vulvas are necessary in the war on women’s bodies

Viva la Vulva is our unapologetic, taboo-breaking, multi-award-winning campaign of our Feminine Care brands Libresse, Bodyform and Nana. But our singing vulvas have a serious side. No girl, on this planet, is ever born ashamed of her vulva. But there’s a toxic cocktail of prudery and porn that affects them from a very young age with dramatic consequences on women’s bodies, health and their lives: 

•  7 out of 10 women don’t even know what their vulva is[1] (while they can correctly identify the male anatomy: foreskin, penis, testes…).
• 1 out of 3 women skip their smear test out of embarrassment[2]. The tragedy is 99,8% of cases are preventable, if you only show up in time. 
• Labiaplasty is the fastest growing cosmetic surgery in the world. Because women are in search for the perfect vulva – which does not exist, as a clinical study confirms[3] – but is propagated by the porn industry.
• Gynecologist and nurses see young girls coming in wanting to have their vulva cut off, or having already attempted to do so, with kitchen scissor. They confess things like 

So vulvas are eased, censored, invisible, forgotten, pornified, hated, mutilated and shamed. A world, we did not want to be part of. Or raise our sons and daughters in it. We wanted to do things differently and use joy and celebration to dynamite taboos and toxic standards. Our vision was to create a new joyful vulva proud world, because if it was treated as a dirty secret, we’d be totally shameless. If porn showed one kind if vulva we’d show hundreds. If vulvas were silenced, we’d show them in a way they’ve never been shown before. We’d make them sing loud and proud. And at our crazy party, everybody was invited. And every vulva too.

The problem is, when you are trying to spread joy, there’s always going to be someone trying to kill it. Media authorities didn’t share our enthusiasm: too explicit, too real, too much, just too many! Your cupcakes are too erotic! To be fair, we have received some “helpful” suggestions: Perhaps make it more symmetrical? Maybe make the shell a bit more beige? Do you really need the clitoris? Did media authorities really ask us to perform labiaplasty on our animated cartoon vulvas, bleach our conch shell and have our vulva cupcakes undergo female genital mutilation?

The rejection we faced – and still see from some haters online – is the symptom of taboos. That’s their nature – when you’re breaking them, people’s instinctive reaction is to reject it. When you have to defend a grapefruit or a cupcake, you know you’re in unchartered territory, and it’s definitely not about the cupcake! After fighting long and hard we finally overturned the broadcasting authorities ban. So our crazy, bad-ass vulvas made it into the world, uncensored and uncut. 

Viva la vulva launched in Scandinavia and the UK and immediately spread globally, reaching half a billion of people in 90 countries. But it’s not just about the reach, it’s about the response. Everywhere women where praising the campaign. We made women laugh while taking them seriously at the same time.

The effect on the brand was like dynamite: smashing all brand metrics, doubling differentiation, getting from 0 to 40% market share for our newly launched intimate care range in a few weeks. And it’s transforming not only the Feminine Care category but also our company from the inside out. More and more markets feeling brave enough to launch it. In France, our brand Nana launched Viva la Vulva even on TV. 

I have to be honest, the media battle isn’t over. Everyday, social media platforms take our ads down, everyday we fight to put them up again. Some consumers launched a petition on change.org asking to stop broadcasting the ad, others create facebook groups to call for a boycott to buy our brand which in turn led to the creation of support groups! But that’s what happens when you’re breaking new ground. Someone’s got to go first and set a precedent. And by now we have built a powerful network of supporters: 

• Marlene Schiappa, Secrete of State for gender Equality in France, supports Viva la Vulva publicly in the face of haters.
• The kick-ass Norwegian doctors and authors of the best-seller book “The Wonder Down under” Dr. Nina Brochmann and Dr. Ellen St?kken Dahl, encourage women to become more comfortable and knowledgeable about their own bodies.
• The CSA, the Jury of Advertising Practice (Jury de Déontologie Publicitaire), ARPP (the French advertising self-regulatory organization) approved the campaign in response to consumer complaints sharing their favorable opinion of the mission of Viva la Vulva to fight body shaming.
• Nurses and gynecologist in the UK have started to use our campaign to reassure young women about their vulvas. Combating shame with joy where it is needed most.

Singing vulva’s. Crazy right? But in the war on women’s bodies, we need more joy and celebration. So, this vulva party is not over! Join us!

Here's our casestudy film

[1] Essity global study among 8.000 women

[2] https://www.nhs.uk/news/cancer/one-three-women-dont-attend-cervical-screening-because-embarrassment/

[3] https://obgyn.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1471-0528.15387