Friends Adult Pants Unveils New Campaign

Nobel Hygiene Limited's adult diaper brand, Friends, has launched a new television commercial (TVC) that reframes the conversation around adult incontinence among middle-aged women. Moving beyond the familiar narrative of destigmatising incontinence itself, the campaign zeroes in on a more immediate barrier to category adoption: hesitation of first-time trials. In India, one in three women above the age of 45 lives with chronic urinary incontinence, often in silence, quietly restructuring her life around the condition rather than seeking a solution - from limiting where she goes and how long she stays out to changing what she wears and even who she meets. Over time, this takes a toll on their physical, mental and social well-being, shaping everyday choices in ways that go largely unspoken.

Incontinence carries its own stigma, but adult diapers introduce a second, less obvious barrier. Widely perceived as products for the elderly or bedridden, they can trigger embarrassment and hesitation among middle-aged women who don't identify with that image. Commenting on the campaign, Kartik Kamal Johari, Chief Marketing & Growth Officer, Nobel Hygiene Limited, said: “With women accounting for nearly 70% of chronic urinary incontinence sufferers in India, which is an estimated 14 million middle-aged women. This is too large and too underserved an audience to overlook. Urinary incontinence quietly influences how women navigate everyday life at different stages. While conversations around the condition itself are opening up, the stigma attached to adult diapers remains a significant barrier to adoption. Our focus with this campaign is to reposition adult diapers as a practical enabler, one that lets women travel, socialise and stay active with confidence by building trust in both the product and its performance.”

Conceptualised by Sideways, the TVC tells the story of a middle-aged woman preparing to travel with friends. On their recommendation, she agrees to try an adult diaper for the first time before the trip but despite their reassurance, she remains apprehensive about whether it will hold up when she needs it most. Her hesitation captures a familiar first-time-user concern: whether the product can be trusted to manage sudden, involuntary leakage once she steps outside the comfort of home.