Guitar Heroine

Female hygiene rocks

Australian sanitary brand Libra is promoting its new line of patterned packaged tampons to its young female audience via a girl, an amp, and a riff.

The Play With Patterns ad sees a rock chick strutting her stuff and rocking out with her guitar on a rooftop, all whilst a cascade of patterns falls around her. The coloured circles, squares, and triangles (which also grace the various Libra product boxes) resembles the Guitar Hero play formula of pressing coloured buttons. The ad creates a virtual gaming interface across the Australian city skyline as the real guitar heroine takes control.

The Libragirl website includes a Sound Lounge, which features an in-site player featuring tracks from prominent Australian bands/artists such as The Veronicas, Kate Alexa, and Claire Clarke.

So what?: Libra has utilised some clever marketing in its previous ads – no blue water or girls on roller skates for it. One saw a man refusing to buy ‘Mini’ tampons for his girlfriend, and opting for ‘Super’. Another saw a girl scouring her flat only to find her boyfriend was using them for the cat to play with. Guitar Hero itself has a limited amount of female acts present, but in Australia where female rock acts ‘are’ prevalent, this kind of rooftop iconic figure sidetracks the products purpose for some genuine female empowerment.

“There are two ways to promote sanitary products; either you go for the idea of ‘discretion’ or ‘being emancipated and in control’. This is clearly the latter, so it’s not groundbreaking. However, the music and style of ad might make the brand stand out with younger women while its rivals talk about being discreet.”
Ruth Mortimer, Editor, Brand Strategy

http://playwithpatterns.com