• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, February 27, 2024

With International Women’s Day ahead, Kotex and L'Oréal Paris are launching campaigns to raise awareness and protect women.

L'Oréal has enlisted actor Eva Longoria in a tutorial offering five fast strategies for combating street harassment. Themed “It’s never your fault” and in partnership with Right To Be, an international nonprofit, the campaign is based on an insight that’s made everyone squirm on the subway: While we can all recognize harassment when it’s happening to someone, we seldom know what to do.

Longoria, acknowledging that 80% of women have been harassed at some point, uses her comic chops to get the basics across, with examples of how to distract, delegate and document.

The cosmetics company based the effort on research that found 85% of people say there is a lack of training on what to do when witnessing harassment, that 52% of respondents believe women are sometimes at fault for the harassment, and that 60% of women have adapted their clothes or appearance in public in order to protect themselves from unwanted comments. 

The Longoria video is short, at four minutes. The group also offers a 10-minute digital and one-hour live training.

Kotex is also launching a film underlining how uncomfortable the world is for women. The effort is based on research that finds almost 60% of women around the world feel progress is lacking. And half say the world is more uncomfortable for them than ever before.

The campaign, the latest in the brand’s “She Can Initiative,”urges women to take part in the #ProgressFeelsLike social media component, sharing their view of what progress is like in their daily lives.

An all-female Kotex team produced the video with production company Rakish, led by director Jaci Judelson.

“In a long history of advancement of women’s rights and equality, today we are reminded that progress isn’t a given,” says Alison Lewis, chief growth officer at Kimberly-Clark, in the release. “Now is a crucial time for women everywhere to use their voices to inspire change, and we are pleased to offer a platform to share what #ProgressFeelsLike from their viewpoint.”

It’s also bringing the effort to life with activations in different markets. For every tweet using #ProgressFeelsLike in Turkey, for example, Kotex is making a product donation to nonprofit women's organizations. And in Brazil, the company is introducing a digital art festival to depict the #ProgressFeelsLike theme. In Vietnam, Kotex is using a music video.

In the U.S., the effort is doubling down on period poverty initiatives. For any U by Kotex product purchased at Walmart during March, the company will give two period products to the Alliance for Period Supplies.