Shoppers Drugmart and #endperiodpovertycanada

Julie Reiken

In taking on the position as one of the blog writers for Menstruation REDefined, I’ve become more aware of the everyday inequalities in relation to periods. The other day, I was scrolling through my Instagram feed when I came across an advertisement in my timeline. Normally, I would just scroll past an ad and get back to the mindless consumption of selfies from my peers, but, this time, I noticed something peculiar in the advertisement. The post I’m speaking of is from Shoppers Drugmart:

The caption of this post reads, “1 in 4 Canadian women struggle to afford period products. This Thanksgiving, consider donating period products to a food bank”. While the messaging behind this caption is wholesome in theory, it is the comment section under this post that brings to light the true issue. One user commented, “Instead of asking customers to buy products from you to donate, why don’t you put women first, profits second, and donate these things yourselves?”; another user stated that “the amount of $$ spent on this advertising campaign could have reduced this number dramatically, but it’s all about profit”. In reading the comments, I struggled to find any positive responses to the post, indicating that large corporations’ responses to period inequality are seen as a widespread issue. I agree with these concerns as Shoppers is a huge brand in Canada and a major supplier of menstruation products. Personally, I always buy my period products from Shoppers Drugmart and, as a result, I can attest to the unfair costs of these products. The steep price of these necessary items is a major factor of period poverty, and, therefore, Shoppers themselves should be taking more responsibility for the issue rather than leaving it to the public to give them more profit and then donate the products. As the commenters pointed out, even the money the brand spent on this marketing campaign could have been put towards actually donating products directly, or working to reduce their prices. Overall, Shoppers Drugmart made a misstep here with their Instagram post as it has proven to be extremely controversial in both my opinion and in those of the comment section.