Lights, Camera, Cora: Cora’s New Commercial Educates Gen Z & Gen Alpha About Period Care
- Aug 2
- 3 min read
I, along with many other people, learned about menstruation by reading a book. It taught me the science behind my changing body. But the conversation largely stopped there. The biology of menstruation may not change from decade to decade, but the way young people encounter information certainly does.
Growing up in the late 2000s and early 2010s, menstruation education often ended after an awkward health class. For many, that one-time conversation with a teacher or school nurse was one of the few opportunities to learn about that time of the month. But in a world where Gen Z and Gen Alpha increasingly turn to digital platforms for answers about their bodies, where can they find information that is factual, current, and actually speaks their language?
Cora is looking to change the conversation around menstruation. With its first-ever commercial, the period care brand is taking an educational approach designed to reach Gen Z and Gen Alpha where they are today.
Cora revisits the awkward health-class conversation many people remember. In the commercial, Cora’s Creative Director, Morgan Sterns worked with director Erica Rose and MadHouse Films to bring humor to this memorable moment.
Understanding younger generations also means understanding how they consume information. Gen Z is the first generation of digital natives (McKinsey & Company, 2024). According to Catherine Nobile, PsyD, Gen Alpha’s perceived disrespect may have more to do with evolving social dynamics than an inherent generational trait (as cited in Brown West-Rosenthal, 2025). Rather than expecting younger consumers to engage with period education in the same way previous generations did, Cora is bringing the conversation to the platforms they already use, distributing the campaign across Connected TV, YouTube, and paid social.
That distribution strategy is what makes the campaign particularly interesting from a marketing perspective. Cora is using nostalgia for an outdated health-class experience while acknowledging that younger generations learn differently. The awkward classroom lesson becomes a cultural reference point rather than the end of the conversation. Consequently, Cora can position itself as both a period care company and a participant in a larger conversation about menstruation.
Period care has been marketed to young women for decades, but younger consumers are increasingly expecting brands to understand how they actually live, communicate, and consume information. Cora’s campaign attempts to meet that expectation by updating not the biology behind menstruation, but the way the conversation surrounding it is delivered.
“Period care has been marketed at young women for decades without actually listening to them. That ends with us,” said Dana Cohen, Chief Marketing Officer at Cora. “This generation doesn't want to be told to just deal with it — they want products and brands that reflect how they actually live. That's exactly what Cora is.”
References
Brown West-Rosenthal, L. (2025, January 10). Gen Alpha isn’t a uniquely disrespectful generation—they’re just misunderstood. Parents. Parents article
McKinsey & Company. (2024, August 28). What is Gen Z? McKinsey & Company. McKinsey article
Cora. (2026, July 28). Cora launches first commercial, raising the standards for a new generation. PR Newswire. Cora press release
