The last few weeks of November saw many a sanitary pad-related topic appearing on the Hot Search list on Weibo, China’s Twitter equivalent. From the founder of the sanitary product manufacturer ABC’s apology which topped the list with 76.26 million views to the authorities responding to calls for new Chinese national standards for sanitary pads reaching number 10 with 23.78 million views, sanitary products became one of the hottest topics during the weekend of 23 and 24 November.
It all started when some netizens accidentally found out that their sanitary pads were shorter than the advertised length. This prompted a hashtag for pad measuring. Over 20 brands were said to be shorter than their advertised length, more than the 4% margin of error allowed by the national standards. This brought out many past scandals and controversies regarding menstrual products including the price and quality.
The scandal not only propelled the topic “what to use after the sanitary pad scandal” to number 11 on the Hot Search list but also brought interest to two unlikely places. One is, more imaginably, medical pads for PPE wearers, which has a higher standard than commercial ones. The other, is strangely, Pangdonglai supermarkets. Trust in the brand was shown in a time of crisis when founder Yu Donglai declared to remove anything not conforming to the standards from the shelves. Predictably, reports of “daigou” emptying shelves in Hong Kong and Japan appeared soon after the scandal. Some netizens jokingly implored Lei Jun to produce Xiaomi-branded sanitary products so there’s a Chinese sanitary pads brand they can trust.
Period-related topics have long been a thorny issue on social media in China. From whether or not high-speed trains should sell pads, to whether stores should keep using black bags when selling them, many controversies stem from the idea that the sight of women’s sanitary products will offend the eye of some men. The latest controversy regarding pad sizes will, no doubt, add to that list. How the brands and authority react to it, however, is what matters, to almost half of consumers in the country.
