Talking About the Taboo: Frightening or Rewarding?

Raise your hand if you’ve ever shied away from chatting with a friend about a touchy subject. Let’s face it, most people don’t like to talk about things that make them uncomfortable, let alone publicly market them. In a time where everything is in the spotlight, publicists must embrace being part of cultural conversations that move the needle forward by shedding light on taboo topics.

Take, for example, talking about periods. You read that right — periods.

Midway through 2020, ads from Canadian menstrual cup brand nixit caught our attention. The cup was already seeing success in the US and UK, but a game-changing product like this was new for Canadians. nixit’s mission is centred around boosting menstrual wellness, smashing the stigma around periods, being inclusive of women, non-binary and trans menstruators, and reducing waste from single-use tampons and pads. As an LGBTQ2S+ and woman-led agency, we saw this gap in the market as an opportunity to bring nixit into Canada, contribute to changing cultural narratives and also team up with a brand whose values we stood behind wholeheartedly.

Unfortunately, we live in a society where period poverty continues to exist. While the Canadian government stopped taxing period products in 2015, many menstruators in marginalized or low-income communities are still unable to afford the products they need.

In addition to this, it has largely been deemed taboo to talk about your period, and terms like “Aunt Flo” or simply saying it’s one’s “time of the month” are common alternatives. nixit, on the other hand, is countering this with straight up, no nonsense period talk. In fact, it has created a product that is meant to be shown off. To have a real dialogue, we had to find a way to get Canadians comfortable with the uncomfortable. Along the way, we came to understand that talking about the taboo was, in fact, extremely rewarding. Here’s why:

It creates a genuinely engaged community

When like-minded people share ideas, experiences and emotions, authentic relationships are formed.

Being real is the most important factor in cultivating an engaged community. By keeping it real, you build the trust of your followers and develop more human interactions. During our campaign for nixit, we sought out journalists, content creators and activists who also kept it real and were passionate about advancing human rights, equality and weren’t shy about sharing their experience with periods and nixit.

When a group of people come together to have real and tough conversations, honesty and vulnerability flourish. These conversations have an inherent intimacy, like you’re speaking with a close friend. As such, the communication between people over digital platforms also becomes more intimate. Breaking taboo is not just about engaging with the product and topic, it’s also about including individual communities in the conversations.

It is a catalyst for cultural change

As the brilliant Audre Lorde once said, “The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.”

Taboo topics are uncomfortable because they are associated with shame. To get past this, taboos require a few key people willing to make waves to help them move forward to become cultural norms. From a PR perspective, an engaged community plays a key role in spreading the message of a purposeful brand.

As a brand consultant or PR strategist, you have the power to be part of starting that ripple. That means changing minds through creating space for people to have conversations they may not have had otherwise.

A successful campaign will see your brand be a leader in breaking the ice and normalizing tough conversations. It also means working with influencers who are leaders in their social spheres and double as activists. Especially in instances like this, quality is more valuable than quantity.

In this way, strategists and publicists can be a catalyst and initiate and facilitate conversations historically deemed off-limits to normalize taboo topics, like menstruation.

It gives a platform to social groups that aren’t part of the dominant media narrative

Without cultural change, those who are part of the taboo equation are largely ignored or left out of dominant narratives.

Take, for example, the idea that periods are a women-only experience. Wrong. Trans men and non-binary folks menstruate too, but they’re frequently left out of these narratives. By having engaged communities that are pushing for change as allies, culture and narratives begin shifting for the better. The work of initiating change should not fall on the shoulders of a marginalized group alone.

In short, taboo topics shouldn’t be scary, nor should they be uncomfortable. Normalizing and destigmatizing taboo as a brand comes down to smashing it at its foundation, then rebuilding.

Looking back, our work with nixit was truly rewarding, literally and figuratively. The partnership won us a gold 2021 Bulldog Award for the best beauty, fashion or lifestyle campaign and a bronze CPRS Ace Award in the New Product or Service Launch Campaign of the Year category. But beyond this, the results and conversations that flowed from nixit’s campaign evoked true change on the period front.

So next time you have the opportunity to talk about the taboo, we say go for it.

Written by Heidi Ruggier, President & Founder of Matte PR