NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Friday, October 3, 2014

NEW DELHI – The latest commercial for Procter & Gamble’s top-selling brand of sanitary pads in India ticks all the usual boxes – a young woman jogs happily in pristine white trousers, before effortlessly winning a tennis tournament.

But unlike most adverts of its ilk, this 30-second clip seeks to dispel the myths surrounding women’s periods in a country where deep-rooted social taboos around menstruation still persist.

It ends with the catchphrase “touch the pickle”, a reference to the widely held belief that a jar of pickle touched by a menstruating woman will spoil – and an exhortation to young Indian women to reject such superstitions.