This Daughter’s Day, Stayfree unveils its new digital film as the latest chapter to its award-winning #BetaStayfreeLeAana campaign, spotlighting an often-overlooked aspect of raising confident daughters…raising sons who understand that periods are a natural part of life. By fostering openness and empathy from an early age, the campaign shows how boys can help challenge long-standing taboos and become stronger allies who can help drive positive period conversations.
For generations, periods and menstrual hygiene have been surrounded by taboos, often viewed as a “girls’ problem” which ends up being discussed in hushed tones and hidden from boys altogether. Such conditioning not only shapes how young minds perceive periods but also reinforce the stigma that surrounds them.
Through #BetaStayfreeLeAana, Stayfree continues to champion the powerful insight – “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 familiar scene from an Indian neighbourhood, a lively game of gully cricket interrupted when a mother calls out to her son, Rohan, asking, “Beta, zara Stayfree le aana“. What follows is an all-too-familiar reaction with the boys expressing discomfort, shock and teasing Rohan on how casually both mother and son discuss periods and sanitary napkins which are ‘girls’ problem’.
As the conversation unfolds, the film highlights how attitudes toward periods are often shaped at home. While some boys grow up viewing periods with discomfort and hesitation, Rohan’s confidence stems from having grown up in a household where periods are discussed openly and without stigma. Thereafter the boys innocently express their discomfort through a series of questions, on common myths, taboos, and misconceptions surrounding periods.
In contrast, Rohan responds with a matter-of-fact honesty coming from his learning that periods are simply a natural part of life. Slowly his friends begin to see things differently too. The film culminates in a meaningful act of solidarity, as the group of boys confidently ask the shopkeeper for a pack of Stayfree.
At its heart, the film captures a nuance of childhood moments while illustrating the transformative impact of how kids can influence each other. The campaign delivers the key message, “When more sons get comfortable with periods, more daughters will be comfortable with periods too”.
Over the past six years, Stayfree’s flagship platform, “It’s Just a Period”, has been on the mission to normalize conversations around periods by engaging the people who matter most to a young girl, i.e her family. The journey began by encouraging fathers to break the silence around periods with their daughters, before expanding the conversation to parents and the critical role they play in raising sons who view periods without stigma or discomfort.
As the movement has evolved, Stayfree shifted from building awareness to driving action through campaigns such as #BetaStayfreeLeAana, which encouraged mothers/parents to send their sons on routine grocery runs to purchase sanitary napkins confidently.
Commenting on the latest 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,” Srinivasa said.
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,” Nayak said.
The digital campaign will be rolled out nationwide across YouTube, Meta platforms (Instagram & Facebook), and major OTT platforms.
