The Unmentionables

The English language is an absorbent medium. Drop anything in to it and it’ll turn one thing into another until some new word appears from the mulch, smelling of roses. 

It’s got its by-laws and byways, but its door is always open, and sometime in 1777, Captain James Cook wrote down the word ‘tapua’ in his log after visiting Tonga. ‘Tapua’ was something forbidden, although not as a result of disgust, but of sacredness. 

That bit was lost in translation.

So ‘tapua’ enters the English language as ‘taboo’ - and its root, it will surprise almost no one, lies in menstrual blood, a physical and cultural menses which is up there among the ultimate taboos – witness all that blue liquid in period-related campaigns. So whilst the word itself is fairly recent, taboos are ancient indeed, and like the meanings of a word, some taboos change, but many are fixed like heads on sticks, and they’re still staring at us. We’re told to look the other way.

Whilst the word itself is fairly recent, taboos are ancient indeed.

Sigmund Freud is said to have thought that incest and patricide were the only universal taboos – he was probably on cocaine at the time – and while a 21st century globalised media and economy has evaporated a lot of regional differences between what is forbidden in various cultures, core taboos concerning ageing, sex, death and the body remain bobbing in the bowl, and are not easily flushed. 

Indeed, taboos and stigmas bloom voluptuously in the commercial environment. And the most reliable litmus when it comes to testing the feeding ground where taboos flourish, is to think up a menstruation ad, as Modibodi did with The New Way to Period and see it get banned by the biggest social media platform on the planet. We’ve come a long way.

Above: Modibodi's The New Way to Period ad, blocked by Facebook.

Blood

But advertising has the enormous power of visibility, and it’s a power that comes with responsibility, too, especially in a world where so much seems to be teetering on a knife’s edge. “What you say matters,” says ECD at Anomaly Berlin, Azsa West. “What you do matters. Especially when people are listening and watching. And when we choose to use our power for much bigger things beyond selling things, we can make the world a much better place.”

Like quite a few creatives who spoke to shots for this piece, she points to the power of Womb Stories, for Libresse, from AMV BBDO, and the prohibitive taboos ranged against the female body. “There is so much stigma around the female body, who it belongs to and the expectations and stereotypes and clichés placed upon it. All of that needs to be dismantled in order to make the world a more equal, safe and loving place. And work like Womb Stories de-stigmatizes the fake narratives society upholds by creating more visibility around it.”

Above: The groundbreaking Womb Stories, for Libresse.

BBDO’s Strategy Partner Margaux Revol describes Libresse as the first period and intimate care brand to realise they did have the power to change mainstream culture for the better by tackling taboos. “We used radical empathy to get to the root cause of the issue and all its ramifications in culture,” she says, “but also brought absolute craft in making nuanced, inspiring campaigns that shine a new light on women+’s experiences, respect them and deeply resonate with them. The power you have as a brand is to uncover truths that are going to be meaningful for your audience,” she continues. 

However, she points out, it’s a long game when it comes to overturning taboos in society. “Taboos are so stubborn, you need to outstubborn them - it takes time to undo the product of hundreds of years. So just because we showed period blood a few years ago doesn’t mean we shouldn’t keep showing blood in beautiful, normal ways every time we represent periods.” 

Age

With campaigns such as the award-winning TENA’s #LastLonelyMenopause, addressing the taboos around women, incontinence and menopause, BBDO’s Senior Strategist Bea Farmelo sees them tackling a major cultural black hole. “The silence and euphemisation of the menopause leaves women unprepared, unequipped, unsupported when it happens to them,” she says. 

“For us, the way of challenging the taboos was to tackle it as a triple stigma: where the stigma of incontinence meets ageism and sexism. We decided to demystify, demedicalise and rehumanise what women go through in perimenopause and menopause to break down the fear, the shame and the isolation.

Above: AMV BBDO's award-winning TENA’s #LastLonelyMenopause.

“Nobody wakes up wanting to be ‘a TENA lady’ … But what we found is that this rejection, this fear, this disgust isn’t just an issue about incontinence: It’s an issue about how women are made to reject, fear and be disgusted by the idea of becoming older themselves.”

Death

Ageing and death, in the just-in-time, ever-upward consumer culture we still inhabit, are taboo characters, about as welcome as a brace of Jehovah’s Witnesses early on Sunday morning. “There’s a natural bias towards positivity,” says BBH’s joint chief strategy officer, Will Lion. “You don’t want to turn up to a pitch with a script about death. But it’s the stuff of life, and once you’re comfortable in your relationship with a client, you do turn up with those pitches.” 

You don’t want to turn up to a pitch with a script about death.

One such pitch was for He's The One, about prostate cancer, and released shortly before Father’s Day. “It’s about all the positive moments that dads bring,” says Lion, “with all their dadisms, whether that’s DIY or dad dancing. It’s tenderly observed, but draws your attention to the fact that what if this person doesn’t exist? It makes you think of a day without them. It comes from a dark place but we treated it with lightness. So, while there’s a bias towards positivity we should embrace the light and shade of life more.”

Above: BBH's Ode to Dads, released shortly before Father’s Day.

Lion’s fellow chief strategy officer at BBH, Simon Gregory, points to Rankin’s recent work for Relate, tackling ageing and sex with portraits of intimacy to strip back the layers of taboo to the natural grain beneath. “There is a whole dynamic of taboos coming together around sexuality, around age, around gender, and that’s where it gets interesting for making work, helping brands find things to talk about, but unless you dig that deep you’re in danger of bobbing along the surface thinking, oh we’re not meant to talk about that.” 

There’s a debate as to whether comedy should still tackle taboos, but it’s a big percentage of what comedy does.

As such, taboo subjects can be catnip for creatives – and for good reason – taboos are the cradle for great stories and narrative arcs, and for memorable characters. “You can look anywhere in society and find taboos,” says Lion, “and our role is to find the win-win. What’s going to take society forward and what will take the brand forward?”

Laughter

While spots concerning female sexual health are generally propelled by a seriousness of tone, tackling men’s sexual unmentionables – such as erectile dysfunction, or how to cradle those dangling balls – is more often done with humour. For while taboos are a serious business, laughter can dissolve them away. “Humour has this amazing ability to puncture,” says BBH’s Lion, while Gregory points out: “There’s even a debate as to whether comedy should still tackle taboos, but it’s a big percentage of what comedy does. I love that idea that humour helps open the conversation, for better or worse. It’s a great wrapper for awkwardness as well.”

Over in the US, CDs Gordy Sang and Brian Siedband of Quality Meats used humour to tackle the taboo of erectile dysfunction in their Reflections spot, to promote Covid vaccination among young men, while for Canadian underwear brand Saxx, they delivered How a Gentleman Treats His Balls, featuring Dutch actor Nina Bergman portraying an authoritative “gentlewoman and ball connoisseur”. Both use humour to pop taboos from the undercarriage of life.

Above: Humourous spots about erectile dysfunction, testicle pampering and vasectomies.

“We tried to get it a Superbowl slot, and we reached out to NBC and they said it was too risque for the Superbowl because of the openness about balls,” says Siedband, who describes the Superbowl as “a microcosm of advertising, in the US. You’ll see plenty of sexual innuendo, but there’s a conservatism around talking directly about body parts.” 

Their fun, humorous approach to taboo elimination was fundamental. “Humour creates conversation,” says Sang. “You might ignore the serious thing whereas if something’s funny, I might talk about it with my partner or my buddy. It forces conversation, to an extent.”

“We like addressing taboos,” adds Siedband. “If there’s a taboo around something we try to poke at it, see why it’s a taboo, is it right for it to be taboo, are we evolved enough to deal with it and talk about it?” 

Cultural taboos

In the age of performative social justice, taboos both old and new inhabit and inhibit the space. For Tess Wicksteed, strategy partner at design studio Here Design, “Certain conversations and topics are like a taboo minefield – you never know when one might blow up in your face ... It increasingly feels like a taboo to affirm the biological rituals of womanhood,” she adds. “And as we start thinking about celebrating biological womanhood we quickly run into trouble. What can we say that doesn’t exclude someone or dehumanise another? How can we ensure equal flourishing for all in this arena?” 

Certain conversations and topics are like a taboo minefield – you never know when one might blow up in your face.

On even more troublesome ground, she posits the ultimate taboo – red wine with fish. Time will tell. “Advertising is preoccupied with pushing the boundaries of social norms,” she adds, “so all its best adverts challenge a taboo – it’s a taboo-busting industry that seeks to spot new cultural narratives and normalise them.”

For James Lewis, Head of Studio at insights and creative ideas hub, The Good Side, the business of tackling taboos is to facilitate positive cultural change. “We peel back layers of cultural complexity to reveal the stuff that people don’t want to look at, and tell human stories to tell how that taboo manifests in people’s lives.” 

Above: The Good Side’s A Better Place film, selected for both the London International Short Film Festival and the Love Wins Film Festival.

The Good Side’s A Better Place campaign highlights the punitive, prejudiced laws left behind by colonial Britain as layers of toxic waste in its legislature. As Lewis points out, many colonial laws criminalised not homosexuality per se, but anal sex. “That taboo is embedded in religious notions of purity, and of othering,” says Lewis. “Anything outside the status quo or gender binary or anything that questions Christian and family patriarchy is rendered taboo. Under that are these old notions of dirt and filth. This fear of the abject and this othering is like a fear of death. That’s what’s underneath. Taboos ladder down to that place, don’t they? Death and sex are the ultimate taboos.” 

Death and sex are the ultimate taboos.

Which is why The Good Side is also launching Celebration Day, on the Sunday after the Summer Solstice, which Lewis describes as “a new day to help people deal with death, loss and grief in a positive way, where people can celebrate those they have loved and lost”. 

However, when it comes to breaking taboos to engender social change, he warns against trusting in advertising’s impact. “Advertising isn’t going to break those taboos alone,” he says. “When you’re questioning taboos, you’re going against the status quo, and for business owners that is difficult to take on. Advertising is one of the tools in your arsenal,” he adds. “It doesn’t lead the charge. Cultural change happens across the whole system.”

Above: Mohammad Gorjestani's Somewhere Higher film, throwing the spotlight on cannabis smokers.

For Mohammad Gorjestani in the US, that fact is fundamental. His Somewhere Higher film spotlights cannabis smokers, depicted on their own terms, not on the terms of the majority. “Most of the work I make is about making new reference points for cultures,” says Gorjesetani, “and challenging history, even making alternative histories… We still have a lot of work to do in allowing the marginalised and underrepresented experience to be represented in a way that promotes equity,” he adds. 

Toxic positivity

But in advertising itself, Gorjestani sees a quite different taboo to tackle in order to be truly impactful. “We have this toxic positivity, or toxic empathy, that everything’s got to feel good in the end,” he says. “That’s not great because it lets people off the hook. Almost everything has this bow, this uplifting thing at the end, and it matters because this is where impact strategy emerges from. 

The more you are truthful, the more successful you can be.

"Getting people to be comfortable with truth, the full truth, as opposed to a truth that just makes people comfortable. Audiences want that. It’s been proven time and again – the more you are truthful, the more successful you can be. The hard part is to story-tell truth. It’s easier to story-tell things that make you feel good.”