TV adverts a Sanitary Towel Advert that's not Afraid of Period Blood

If you were an extra-terrestrial who landed on Earth anytime in the past couple of decades, and watched some TV adverts, you would assume that once a month human women produced blue liquid from their vaginas.

Manufacturers of sanitary products - keen to demonstrate the absorbent properties of their pads and tampons - seemed to believe the general public (half of who are their target market and know precisely what's coming out down there) couldn't handle seeing anything that resembled actual period blood.

So an appreciative nod must go to Bodyform who have released an advert replacing the ubiquitous blue liquid with a red one.

While a marketing move by a huge corporation is hardly a feminist revolution, it's progress of sorts. And if people (including some women) are a bit 'grossed out by it', I think that's good thing too.

Because periods are bloody, and messy. An unexpected one can ruin your bedsheets, destroy a pair of knickers, leave you scrubbing a stain out of a skirt. (Always use cold water - hot water 'bakes' it in). Anyone who's had to scrub a mattress with a damp cloth knows that dried on period blood is a stubborn fucker.

If only the first day of your period was as neat and tidy as gently pouring a test tube of blue liquid onto a pad.

So, here's to more honest, realistic advertising of sanitary products. We have to spend our hard earned cash on this shit, so the least these companies can do is pay a (female) advertising executive to come up with something which doesn't sanitise our bodily experiences into a lab experiment but acknowledges the reality of having to deal with your uterine lining expelling via your fanny once a month.