Last year, Florida took significant action curtailing sexual education as part of the nation’s increasingly polarized culture wars, but Omnicom Health Group (OHG) didn’t take it lying down.

In July 2023, HB1069, a bill that limits K-12 instruction on sexual education issues and bans schools from enforcing policies requiring teachers to refer to students by their preferred pronouns, was enacted in the Sunshine State.

Colloquially known as the ‘Don’t Say Period’ bill by opponents, HB1069 has garnered significant media attention since being signed into law. 

This came one year after Governor Ron DeSantis signed HB 1557, also known as the ‘Don’t Say Gay,’ bill into law, which barred the teaching of sexual orientation and gender identity in K-3 instruction.

The growing legislative hostility towards sexual education and the LGBTQIA+ community in Florida as well as other red states prompted OHG to produce a creative solution.

Earlier this week, OHG’s Purpose Group announced that it partnered with the nonprofit Period to launch Sans Period – a new typeface that hides 36 menstruation facts in plain sight.

The information is located in the typeface’s periods and automatically changes with each letter and period combination. The Sans Period font downloads and installations from students are intended to maintain access to menstrual health information.

“Health education is critical for students, especially since so many will not get this education at home,” Dina Peck, chief creative officer of the Purpose Group, said in a statement. “Kids need to know about menstruation before they experience their first period. Period.”

Purpose Group’s partner Period is supporting the effort with social media advertising as well as billboards displaying the typeface between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. on the morning commute to school.

“People may think that kids are getting plenty of menstrual health and destigmatized education at home, but often, they’re not. According to our third installment of the State of the Period study, 23% of kids don’t talk about periods at home at all,” Michela Bedard, the executive director of Period, said in a statement. “That’s why we had to find a smart way to provide this education to school-aged kids.”

Sans Period is the latest medical marketing campaign promoting access to menstrual health information in the state since the bill was signed into law. 

Over the summer, Intimina, which makes women’s health products that span from menstrual cups to feminine moisturizers, launched the Say Period campaign to offer a how-to menstrual health guide for parents in Florida ahead of the start of the 2023-24 school year.

The guide includes prompts to help facilitate conversations around menstruation as well as information about cycles, period symptoms and tips for period products.