BC Women’s Health Foundation: The Period Pain Simulator

The BC Women’s Health Foundation wanted to spark a genuine public conversation about women’s health and reach audiences well beyond its existing community, but breaking through on a topic that many find uncomfortable required more than a traditional awareness campaign.

Global Public Affairs saw an opportunity the client hadn’t: pairing women’s health with professional soccer at a moment when the sport was about to dominate public attention ahead of the FIFA World Cup. Building on the BC Women’s Health Foundation’s existing relationships and leveraging our network in the BC business and sports communities, we facilitated collaboration between the Foundation, The Greater Vancouver Board of Trade, the Vancouver Whitecaps FC and Somedays, creators of a period pain simulator.

The concept was simple and visceral: Whitecaps players wired to the simulator, experiencing escalating levels of period pain on camera, with level nine representing endometriosis. Watching elite male athletes struggle turned disbelief into empathy. GPA helped shape the creative concept, earned buy-in, and managed the collaboration and approvals process across five partners from start to finish, with a clear call to action driving donations to the Foundation.

The campaign became the best-performing content ever on the Foundation’s channels, earning 90.1K teaser views and thousands of engagements, with the hero video adding another 38.6K views. Co-posting across five partner channels, including the Whitecaps, Somedays and the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade, multiplied organic reach far beyond what any single channel could achieve, and the campaign generated strong community buzz and follow-on content opportunities for all partners.