Given that tampons fall into the luxury bracket in Germany, they’re taxed at 19%, compared to the 7% levied for items that make the cut for ‘daily necessities’. In response, The Female Company, along with its Berlin-based creative partner Scholz & Friends, has bound organic tampons within a 46-page book, one that fittingly addresses the topic of tax discrimination. For its creative approach to the cause of menstrual rights, the campaign won the PR Grand Prix at the 2019 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. “We hope this is perhaps a call to the industry of PR to work closer with the creative community,” says Michelle Hutton, chair of the PR jury and managing director of global clients at Edelman. “Because when the two crafts go hand in hand, this is the kind of magic that can be produced.”

The tampon tax has been accused of being unfair and sexist. But it’s also seen as expressly bizarre, given that it classifies hygiene products as a ‘luxury’. While this has spurred countless campaigns, movements, and advocacy for menstrual equity, The Female Company has taken a different tone with its Tampon Book. Rather than aiming for change via activism and petitions, the brand has hacked tax laws with its stunt – a move that plays off the absurdity of the tampon tax, and deals with a serious issue in a way that’s funny. By bringing wry humour to an issue of social justice, the Tampon Book opens up the important topic with a lighter tone. Especially with more than half of American millennial women and 66% of British women opting not to identify as feminist, The Female Company’s sardonic take invites people to hate on the tax law in a way that feels distanced from the political.

Mira Kopolovic is a behavioural analyst at Canvas8, which specialises in behavioural insights and consumer research. Her MA focused on visual culture and artist-brand collaborations, and she spends her spare time poring over dystopian literature.