For decades advertising for tampons and sanitary towels has been absurd in its squeamishness, in particular the substitution of realistic-looking menstrual blood with a mysterious blue liquid.

This campaign for Libresse/Bodyform sought to confront the taboos around advertising these products and challenge what they say about our attitudes to women’s bodies. It tried to depict honestly the reality of having a period, as well as featuring a girl publicly asking for a pad, a man buying pads for his partner and, yes, realistic-looking red blood trickling down a woman’s leg.

View all the winning work from The Annual 2018 here.

Entrant: AMVBBDO. ECDs: Alex Grieve, Adrian Rossi. Creative Directors: Toby Allen, Jim Hilson. Creative Team: Nicholas Hulley, Nadja Lossgott. Agency Producer: Edwina Dennison. Production Company: Somesuch & Co. Director: Daniel Wolfe. Production Company Producers: Lou Hake, Sally Llewellyn, Tim Nash.