Tena ad fighting menopause taboo wins £1m C4 diversity award

Tena, the incontinence liner company, has launched a TV ad destigmatising the menopause using Channel 4’s diversity award funding.

Channel 4’s annual Diversity in Advertising award offers winning campaigns £1m value of commercial airtime across its portfolio of channels, including its video-on-demand service (VOD), through its commercial arm 4Sales.

The broadcaster’s brief this year was for creative treatments that would challenge ageism in advertising.

Research has revealed people over 50 feel “vastly misrepresented” in the majority of ads, with 72% of those questioned feeling that people their age in adverts were outdated stereotypes.

Now in its sixth year, Tena won this year’s fund and has launched a TV ad aiming to destigmatise the menopause by showing a conversation between a mother going through it and her daughter.

The spot, created by Omnicom ad agency AMV BBDO, airs tonight on Channel 4 at 8.10pm and use the hashtag #thelastlonelymenopause to amplify its message around normalising the menopause.

Veriça Djurdjevic, chief revenue officer at Channel 4, said: “AMV’s ad for TENA is a game-changing take on the narrative around the menopause. It perfectly fulfilled our Award brief to tackle ageism in advertising, using the central idea of talking about the menopause as a way of breaking the stigma and silence that exists around it despite the fact half the population will experience it.”

She added: “Through our annual Diversity in Advertising Award we’re committed to keep challenging the advertising industry to reflect all society authentically in their TV ads to ensure that the amazing diversity of the UK is reflected not just in  our programming but across our ad breaks too.”

The ad was directed by Shannon Murphy and produced by Lief.