Bodyform, which won plaudits for its ‘The Truth’ response to a Facebook post in 2012, has again been creating a buzz on social media with its new ad, Blood.

The ad comprises a montage of bleeding women, with injuries mostly sustained in the name of sport: a rugby player’s battered head, a boxer’s busted nose, the grazed knee of a runner. A shot of a ballerina’s mangled toes is especially wince-worthy.

‘No Blood Should Hold Us Back,’ reads the strapline. It’s clever, uncomfortable, challenging viewing – partly because it’s so grisly, partly because it’s a shock to see bleeding, violently damaged female bodies used as positive inspiration.

One day, that weird blue liquid will seem astonishingly quaint.

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