The Truth, Undressed

Client: Canesten, Bayer Consumer Health

Canesten is on a mission to help young people with a vagina better understand their body and have greater confidence to look after their intimate health.

The UK is seen as a progressive nation for sexual health education, however only 6% of UK women (aged 16-25) learned about intimate health conditions through education. This is vastly inadequate and can lead to feelings of shame and distress. To reduce embarrassment and stigma, we developed a revolutionary education-at-scale initiative; The Truth, Undressed. The unique programme targets people with a vagina, aged 11-24. It’s designed to break down the misconceptions and taboos that surround vulval anatomy and vaginal health. For the first time ever, young people have unprecedented access to images of real vulvas, accurate depictions of vaginal discharge and real pubic hair. Education: To achieve long-term societal impact, we partnered with the PSHE Association - the national curriculum body for personal, social, health and economic education. We integrated The Truth, Undressed into the UK school syllabus by providing digital lesson plans for teachers covering Key Stages 3-5 (aged 11–18). Website: We created a microsite (truthundressed.co.uk) to provide an educational resource where young people can find images, information and expert advice designed to help them better understand their vaginas and overcome shame and embarrassment. Social films: To reach our audience and direct them to truthful information, we created a series of educational films across TikTok and Instagram. We worked in collaboration with both platforms to adapt our content to respect their regulations.