Period conversations have traditionally been framed around girls and women. Stayfree’s latest campaign takes a different route, asking what happens when boys are brought into that conversation early on.
Ahead of Daughter’s Day, Stayfree has unveiled the latest digital film under its #BetaStayfreeLeAana campaign, reinforcing its message that normalising periods is not only about making girls comfortable with menstruation, but also about raising boys who understand that it is a natural part of life.
The campaign, conceptualised by Team WPP, builds on Stayfree’s long-running “It’s Just a Period” platform, which has focused on breaking period-related taboos by involving families in the conversation.
The new film brings this idea into an everyday Indian setting, a neighbourhood gully cricket match.
As a group of boys play cricket, Rohan’s mother calls out to him, asking, “Beta, zara Stayfree le aana.” His friends immediately react with discomfort and teasing, reflecting the awkwardness and misconceptions that often surround periods when they are treated as a subject that boys should not discuss.
Rohan, however, reacts differently. Having grown up in a household where periods are discussed openly, he is comfortable with the request. As his friends question and joke about the subject, he responds to their misconceptions with the matter-of-fact understanding he has developed at home.
The conversation gradually shifts the boys’ perspective, eventually culminating in the group confidently asking a shopkeeper for a pack of Stayfree.
At the heart of the campaign is the thought: “When more sons get comfortable with periods, more daughters will be comfortable with periods too.”
Stayfree’s latest campaign extends the brand’s broader effort to bring families into conversations around menstrual health.
Over the past six years, the brand’s “It’s Just a Period” platform has evolved from encouraging fathers to speak to their daughters about periods to addressing the role parents play in raising sons without menstrual stigma.
With #BetaStayfreeLeAana, Stayfree has moved the conversation further towards action, encouraging mothers and parents to involve their sons in everyday acts such as purchasing sanitary pads.
Speaking about the campaign, Supriya Srinivasa, Marketing Director, Stayfree, said, “We aim to create a world where periods are not something to feel embarrassed about. Creating that world requires not only supporting girls but also helping boys understand that periods are completely natural and not a taboo. With ‘Beta, Stayfree Le Aana’, we show that this understanding can begin at home, through something as simple as a son helping his mother buy Stayfree. When one boy becomes comfortable doing so openly, he encourages other boys, and in turn the girls around them, to feel more comfortable too.”
“This Daughter’s Day, we want to celebrate the role sons can play in normalizing period conversations by helping them become comfortable with the topic first. This journey of Stayfree began over five years ago, driven by one important conversation at a time, to create a future where both boys and girls understand and accept periods as a normal part of life.” she added.
Sukesh Nayak, Team WPP, said, “How we make daughters feel about their periods isn’t shaped only by talking to girls – it’s shaped by the boys growing up alongside them. A simple action of asking sons to buy sanitary napkins, ‘Beta Stayfree Le Aana’ (Son Get Stayfree), normalises period conversations at home and now in the peer group. We know that peer influence is powerful: if boys can learn period shame from each other, they can learn empathy and understanding from each other too. Our Daughter’s Day film shows how a son standing up to casual teasing inspires his friends to see period care as entirely natural. Because when more sons get comfortable with periods, more daughters get comfortable too.”
