This super honest ad about postpartum life got rejected by the Oscars

Every once in a while, a company creates a commercial that doesn't just feel like an annoying interruption to the show you were watching.

Frida Mom is one such company, with its new ad about postpartum life that takes a hard and super realistic look at what new mothers go through in the overwhelming period after giving birth.

Frida Mom, if you haven't heard of it, is the new brand from the people who brought you Frida Baby products (like the ingenious snot-sucker, NoseFrida). Its line of postpartum products—disposable underwear, instant ice maxi pads and a peri bottle, among others—launched in the U.S. last year and are rumoured to be coming to Canada shortly (yes, please!).

In the ad, you hear a baby crying and see a mom turn on the lamp on her bedside table. It's the middle of the night. The mom is wearing disposable postpartum underwear and she walks gingerly to the bathroom, clearly still in pain from delivery. She uses a squirt bottle after peeing and puts witch hazel pads in her underwear. She struggles to stand back up. Meantime, the baby is crying throughout the whole scene. Then, these words come on the screen: “Postpartum recovery doesn’t have to be this hard."

Check it out yourself:

Amazing, right? But here's what sucks. As the company revealed late last week, the commercial was actually rejected by ABC & the Academy Awards. Apparently it was "too graphic." What's sad is that commercials like this normalize women's postpartum experience, not to mention highlight much needed products.

Thankfully, the ad is getting plenty of support online. On YouTube, the video has over a million views, and Hollywood stars such as Busy Phillips are speaking out about the TV broadcast rejection.

"I legit teared up when I just watched it," says Busy in the caption of her Instagram post sharing the ad. "Partially because this is clearly an ad made by women who have been there and get it and partially because I DO believe so strongly that the more we can NORMALIZE A WOMAN'S BODILY EXPERIENCE IN MEDIA, the better off our culture and society will be. AND YES THAT MEANS ADS TOO. You probably don't even flinch when an Erectile Dysfunction ad comes on but THIS AD IS REJECTED?! I think this is an incredible piece of advertising that accurately represents something millions of women know intimately. And I'm so fucking sick of living in a society where the act of simply BEING A WOMAN is rejected by the gatekeepers of media. Well. Shame on them and NOT on us for simply being human women."

Luckily we have the internet and social media, which provide so many ways for ads like this to spread without needing airtime during a prestigious awards show. So share this with your friends, because postpartum life is hard AF, and people need to understand there's nothing about it to be ashamed of.

Read more: Everything you need to know about taking care of your postpartum body 10 photos that celebrate and honour ‘imperfect’ post-baby bodies