Change the cycle.
United Utilities needed a behaviour change campaign to tackle a persistent but often overlooked issue: the flushing of period products.
Every year, improper disposal causes thousands of preventable sewer blockages across the North West, creating operational and environmental challenges. Research identified a clear priority audience, women aged 30-55 in high-risk locations, allowing us to develop a targeted, insight-led multichannel campaign designed to shift habits, increase awareness and encourage more responsible disposal behaviours.
Role:Creative Direction, Creative platform, Storytelling
The campaign proposition
Even with the best intentions, language could alienate or embarrass women when it came to education around periods and the products associated with them.
Women often felt that because it was their body, they should just know how to deal with it, leading to bad habits and misinformation being passed on. To address this, the campaign was deliberately designed to feel objective, accessible and free from guilt or patronising messages. Simple, conversational copy was paired with stark imagery that highlighted the consequences of flushing rather than binning period products, creating a sense of urgency and helping drive a lasting change in behaviour.
Periods are still taboo.
With shame and embarrassment fuelled by lack of education
and bad habits.
The challenge
United Utilities was facing a persistent and costly issue caused by the incorrect disposal of period products. An estimated 4.6 million disposable period products are flushed down toilets across the UK every day, contributing to blockages, sewer flooding, and environmental pollution.
Research carried out by United Utilities with more than 1,700 women across the Northwest revealed that a sizable proportion of women between 30-50 had recently flushed a period product, often because they believed items were flushable or had always disposed of them in this way.
The challenge was not simply awareness, but behaviour change – dispelling long‑held myths,tackling ingrained habits, and encouraging a simple but crucial action: wrap it and bin it, never flush.
The Approach
We worked with United Utilities to address the issue through insight‑led, customer‑focused communications that found women where they were and adopted a straight-talking, shame-free approach.
Clear, inclusive creative was developed to normalise correct disposal and challenge the belief that period products are safe to flush. The campaign focused on a simple, repeatable message and avoided shaming, instead encouraging a small behaviour change that would make a collective impact.
To reach audiences in relevant, real‑world contexts, the campaign ran across targeted social media and digital advertising channels, supported by online information and physical materials such as toilet‑door posters in public venues. This ensured the message reached people at moments where disposal decisions are often made
The impact.
By directly addressing common myths and explaining the consequences of flushing – from sewer blockages to environmental harm – the campaign provided customers with the knowledge they needed to make a different choice.
The insight‑led approach ensured the campaign was rooted in real behaviours, strengthening its credibility and relevance. Through clear messaging and multi‑channel delivery, United Utilities reinforced the ‘wrap it and bin it’ message as a social norm, supporting longer‑term efforts to reduce blockages, protect wastewater infrastructure and minimise pollution across the region.
Engagement and recall
79m impressions, 40,000 link clicks and 17.8k video Thru plays.
Increase in unprompted awareness of period product disposal from 4%to 18%.
High campaign recall of 17%, with the washroom posters scoring the highest recall of 21% in Merseyside.
66% of respondents reported increased education on the impact of flushing period products.
