Viral of the week: Tampon ad throws most awkward party ever (and gets 25 million views)

Who knew a party to celebrate a girl’s first period would be so awkward? This taboo-breaking ad from tampon subscription service HelloFlo has taken the web by storm. See why it’s our video viral of the week below…

The HelloFlo service works by encouraging its customers to organise monthly period plans, and sends out care packages to women and girls having their period. With such an unusual business model, its unsurprising the firm went for a tampon ad that’s far from traditional.
In the YouTube video, a young girl fakes getting her period to fit in with all her friends who have already gone through that rite of passage.
The girl’s mother discovers her daughter is lying and instead of grounding her as punishment, decides to throw her a “first moon party,” complete with games like pin the pad on the period ad and hitting a uterus pinata.
How did the mum know? Well, as she said: “Periods don’t have glitter on them.” But the girl did get a HelloFlo period starter kit, which the whole ad was really about in the first place.
Periods remain a taboo subject, with traditional ads using blue liquids and active women in white trousers in place of frank discussions about menstrual cycles. The HelloFlo concept turns this on its head, opening the idea of periods as a community issue rather than a personal one. The funny story and relatable characters makes the experience easier for everyone to share, discuss and (most importantly) recommend HelloFlo’s web delivery service to friends and social media followers.
In just over three weeks since launch, “First Moon Party” has garnered more than 25 million views. The spot’s also been widely shared on social media, receiving more than 200,000 Facebook interactions and 6000 Tweets.