There's finally an ad for sanitary products that actually has blood in it.

If you were to live your life like a woman in a typical commercial for sanitary products, your cheeks would hurt from smiling, you’d have a cupboard full of white clothes and you’d either be great at tennis or reduced to a couch-bound ogre once a month.

You may also want to see a doctor about all the blue liquid apparently gushing from your body every 28 days or so.

For the most part, the world of advertising does women few favours when it comes to offering a realistic depiction of what it’s like to have your period, which is what makes UK company Bodyform’s new ad so bloody refreshing.

For one thing, there’s not a single pair of Rollerblades. Instead there’s a bunch of powerful women playing sports, boxing, dancing, biking, hiking, mountain-climbing and (admittedly, slightly bafflingly) riding a horse and brandishing a sword.

Oh, and bleeding because, as the tagline says, “No blood should hold us back”.

It’s part of a larger campaign focussed on educating people about how menstruation affects the body and different points in the cycle and actually offering helpful advice for nutrition and exercise.

https://twitter.com/bodyform?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

So far it’s been a hit too, which suggests we weren’t the only people who find blue gel a little disconcerting.

About bloody time, indeed.