Vending
Woman aims to solve period poverty with bathroom ads for free pads
November 17, 2025
Australian Remy Tucker has founded On the House, a startup that aims to fight period poverty — a lack of feminine hygiene products — with ads in bathrooms aimed at offering women free pads, according to a goodgoodgood.co article.
"It's a hidden and silent crisis that needs to be loud," Tucker told the news outlet. "Our inaugural launch partner, Afterpay, recently commissioned research to uncover more about the realities of period poverty in Australia. The statistics are shocking. More than three in five women have been forced to use makeshift pads due to a lack of access, with almost 64 percent of women using toilet paper, followed by tissues, and in some extreme cases, even socks."
Tucker, who did not have any advertising experience, had trained as a midwife and dealt with new mothers and refugees who did not have access to tampons.
A vending machine operates behind digital ads screens. Women can scan a QR code and receive three pads. There's a limit of four boxes a month.
"By 2035, I want to have over 20,000 dispensers globally," Tucker told the news outlet. "I want to have started the world's first female-founded out-of-home advertising company that single-handedly ended a real-world issue."
