Stayfree has released a new digital film for Daughter’s Day as the latest chapter of its #BetaStayfreeLeAana campaign, which focuses on raising sons who understand that periods are a natural part of life.
According to Stayfree, the campaign shows how boys can help challenge long-standing taboos and become allies who can help drive positive period conversations.
According to the release, periods and menstrual hygiene have for generations been surrounded by taboos, often viewed as a “girls’ problem” that is discussed in hushed tones and hidden from boys altogether. Through #BetaStayfreeLeAana, Stayfree continues to champion the insight that “when boys grow up understanding that periods are a normal part of life, they help create a more supportive and inclusive environment for girls and women.”
Conceptualized by Team WPP, the film opens with a scene from an Indian neighborhood in which a game of gully cricket is interrupted when a mother calls out to her son, Rohan, with the line “Beta, zara Stayfree le aana.” The boys express discomfort and shock and tease Rohan about how casually he and his mother discuss periods and sanitary napkins, which they describe as a “girls’ problem.”
The film highlights how attitudes toward periods are often shaped at home. While some boys grow up viewing periods with discomfort and hesitation, Rohan has grown up in a household where periods are discussed openly and without stigma.
The boys then express their discomfort through a series of questions on common myths, taboos, and misconceptions surrounding periods. Rohan responds with matter-of-fact honesty, drawing on his understanding that periods are a natural part of life. His friends begin to see things differently too. The film ends with the group of boys asking the shopkeeper for a pack of Stayfree.
The campaign’s key message is “When more sons get comfortable with periods, more daughters will be comfortable with periods too.”
Stayfree’s flagship platform, “It’s Just a Period,” has over the past six years aimed to normalize conversations around periods by engaging the family of a young girl. It began by encouraging fathers to break the silence around periods with their daughters, before expanding to parents and their role in raising sons who view periods without stigma or discomfort.
The platform has shifted from building awareness to driving action through campaigns such as #BetaStayfreeLeAana, which encouraged mothers and parents to send their sons on routine grocery runs to purchase sanitary napkins.
“We aim to create a world where periods are not something to feel embarrassed about,” said Supriya Srinivasa, Marketing Director, Stayfree.
“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.”
“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,” said Sukesh Nayak, Team WPP.
“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.”
