Immortals

“Ground-breaking campaigns such as TENA and AMV BBDO’s Last Lonely Menopause, show the creative firepower of breaking the silence and stigma surrounding the Menopause”. – Nicola Kemp, BITE.

Germain Greer once wrote: “There is a belief that nothing happens to middle aged women, but this is because middle aged women do not talk about what happens to them”. With the #LastLonelyMenopause, TENA puts middle aged women back in the centre of the narrative to tackle a triple stigma of ageism, sexism, and shame of incontinence to finally rehumanise the life of millions of women who keep being ignored, dismissed and pushed into isolation when they can be at their most vulnerable too.

And if even the Daily Mail deemed it “Game-changing”, we feel like there is a lot to be said about it.

The idea:

It's been said that the menopause is like puberty in reverse. But where puberty gets its stories of rage, confusion, and becoming – menopause doesn’t. Where one is understood, the other isn’t. The menopause is left behind as a vulnerable and unequipped moment in every single women’s life.

Our many, varied experiences are brushed under the carpet by shame and indifference.

The sudden desire to throttle your partner, the rogue beard hairs, the pee that trickles out every time you cough. It’s no help that the menopause often involves bladder weakness. Stigma upon stigma. We don’t talk about it, so we’re not prepared for it. And so, for too many women, it feels like the menopause comes out of nowhere. 

TENA new campaign, #Last Lonely Menopause, decided to change that for good. It kicked off with a Coming-of-Age film, which broadens the typical coming of age genre (representing teenage girls) to finally give menopausal women their tale of rage, growth and becoming, representing it not as an ending (with greying sexless grandmothers) but a new beginning – and thereby redressing a cultural blind spot that has left them out of film for too long.

The film, which first aired on channel 4 after winning the Diversity in Advertising c4 award unlocking £1m of airtime, plays into audience biases, tricking viewers into thinking they are watching a traditional teenage coming of age film. Through subtle camerawork and VO shifts, the true protagonist is revealed to be the mother. What follows is an authentic portrayal of the menopause, all the painfully-relatable-but-rarely-seen-on-TV menopausal truths: Hormonal rage, bladder weakness (the first brand to a represent urine patch sensitively on-screen), rogue beard hairs, night sweats, lube-fuelled intimacy, brain fog, and feeling more like yourself on the other side of it all.

Through a rich mother-daughter onscreen relationship, the film shows the power of talking about the menopause, not just between mothers and daughters, but also encouraging everyone to make this the #LastLonelyMenopause by better talking and supporting each other so we all feel more equipped when going through it.

To amplify the film, a suite of social and digital assets dived into the Infrequently Asked Questions about the menopause – providing much-needed knowledge and support, but also prompting people to ask more questions to each other – and listen properly. “What’s the menopause like?” “What did you least expect about it?” “Are you okay? Can I do anything?”. Because when those questions are asked – suddenly – there’s a crack of relief.

The background

TENA is known as a brand for “old ladies”.

And that’s a big problem. Not just for TENA. But for women.

Because the strong rejection, fear, and disgust around being “that TENA lady” isn’t just an issue about incontinence (which gets in the way of recruiting people who actually need the products) - it’s an issue about how women are made to reject, fear and be disgusted by the idea of becoming older themselves.

All our bodies change – for men and women, but for women, turning 40-50yo is like the cliff edge of womanhood – beyond which women disappear, get dismissed and fall into irrelevance, making them incredibly unequipped, under-listened to and under-supported for the menopause.

Our key findings in our research revealed that one in three (31%) menopausal and post-menopausal women did not feel very prepared for the menopause with just over a third (36%) feeling only somewhat informed about symptoms. Close to half of this group of women (43%) also believed there are a lot of myths or even lies about the menopause. And seven in ten (71%) of all those polled agreeing the menopause is spoken about with such doom and gloom and that they don't feel positive aspects are spoken about enough.

But we had evidence that women who feel better prepared are more likely to say the menopause can be a positive change, and less likely to feel under pressure to cope with symptoms – and wanted to create a virtuous circle for everyone going through the menopause or who will, in the future.

If we dismantled the silence around the menopause, we’d feel better supported and better prepared. 

Results

Launched on channel 4, the Last Lonely Menopause has gone to reach over 150m, got 1.4m views on FB, got covered in over 200 pieces including the Independent, the Mirror or even the Daily Mail, with 100% positive praise in PR and 70% positivity on social, where women and men were jumping in to defend it and express how the campaign has been helping them.

“As someone who suffered through the menopause twice – one natural and a second surgical, this advert hit home. Made me cry. Thank you #Tena for highlighting some of the issues”; “Powerful to see how talking about the menopause and myth busting can help so many women”; “Saw the ad last night & it made me feel very emotional – brought back memories of the confusion I felt as wasn’t really aware of what was going on.” An it goes on and on.

Importantly, 65% of women feeling warmer towards the bran and nearly 70% felt more likely to consider TENA, with a reduced gap between TENA and our key competitor, Always Discreet.

A critical result from the campaign is also that retailers such as Tesco, Asda and Boots felt the campaign was so relevant they all offered to run exclusive partnerships or activities off the back of the campaign.