The world celebrated International Women’s Day on the 8th of March. This year’s theme has been “Think Equal, Build Smart, Innovate for Change”. The theme was also supported by the hashtag #BalanceforBetter across the social media platforms. It is a day to celebrate the women in our society who are leading everyone towards a better future and getting that ‘one’ step closer in achieving a gender-equal world for all of us. An ideal world of equality requires social innovations that work for both men and women and slowly but surely the world is making an effort to bring this hypothesis into reality.
This date holds extreme importance, especially from looking back a couple of hundred years where women were considered home-makers only, to now corporate leaders of multi-million dollar industries. The revolution has been real, and it has been making progress ever since. We have seen women joining workforces during the labor crisis of World War II as all men were out in the war. And we have seen strong and powerful campaigns that tell us what the image of women was in those times and how we have evolved into the current generation that we are in today. It certainly wasn’t a smooth sail, but they made it here.
Renowned companies and organizations share these strong feelings of women empowerment with us and there have been extremely wonderful campaigns to inspire and empower women all over the globe and build a stronger connection with their audience. These are not just about a particular gender, it is about appreciation, empowerment, self-worth and making a better society for all of us. The campaigns revolving around International Women’s Day were epic this year and here are few of the very bests that spoke to us the most.
BOURNVITA (CADBURY)
Bournvita is a brand of chocolate malt drink that is manufactured by Cadbury. It is considered as one of the power drinks that is a favorite chocolate drink all over the world, especially because of its rich chocolate flavor that Cadbury nails every time. This year, in the spirit of International Women’s Day; Bournvita for Women has launched its campaign “The Supermarket Surprise” with the hashtag #DontForgetYourself.
[ot-video][/ot-video]
The advertisement has worked with supermarkets in India where selected female customers were given free grocery shopping and they had to check out on a different counter for this special offer. While checking out, the customers were drawn into a conversation with the cashier (who is a nutritionist from Bournvita). All these female customers were briefing why they bought certain products and like all of the females in our lives, those products catered for someone in their house, whether that be their children, husbands, parents and even grandparents. Near the end, these women were asked a simple question – “What did you buy for your self-care?” While this left the women in confusion and they started wondering that they look out for everyone else in their lives while they come second.
The message sent by this campaign was not to forget ‘yourself’, to care better for their own self as well as they care for others. Moreover, for a developing country like India, it is an advertisement we all can relate to, and it is also a good reminder to look out for the females in our lives and to take a moment to make sure if their needs are fulfilled as much as the rest of us.
PAYPAL
PayPal is an American Company operating worldwide and enabling payments online and across borders with ease. It is truly one of the most influential brands around the world. In the celebration of International Women’s Day this year as well as its support for #BalanceforBetter campaign, they have released an inspiring video featuring female business leaders in a talk show setup where they discussed their feelings and experiences in leading their businesses to the top and how things worked out for them in the workplace.
[ot-video][/ot-video]
Five female chief executives and business leaders were invited to share their insights on how to create a more gender-balanced world. Louise Pentland (EVP, Chief Business Affairs and Legal Officer, PayPal) led the conversation with – Heidi Zak, co-founder and co-chief executive officer of Third Love; Kara Goldin, founder and chief executive officer of Hint Water; Blythe Harris, co-founder and chief creative officer of Stella & Dot; Lisa Edwards, senior vice-president of global boutiques named Benefit Cosmetics, and Yunha Kim, founder and chief executive officer of Simple Habit. The video was about five minutes long and there they discussed diversity, taking risks, creating funds and other aspects that women entrepreneurs must take into account on a day-to-day basis in a workplace.
PayPal also announced that it is the third year in a row that the company has achieved full pay equity in salary, all over the world for women and men, as well as ethnic pay equity in the United States of America, which itself is a delightful news. Companies like these stand tall in their examples of how business models should be run!
BUDWEISER
Budweiser is a renowned brand of brewed beer that started off in the United States and now has breweries all around the world. It is definitely one of America’s oldest and most favorite beer brands to date. However, this brand in the past had always targeted the male audiences for their products. In the ’50s and ’60s, their campaigns mainly revolved around men enjoying their products while a female side character would always be catering for the men’s needs. These extremely sexist remarks weren’t even considered as something odd back in the day but Budweiser definitely owned up to it.
This year, embracing the International Women’s Day, Budweiser released edited versions of their 50’s and 60’s iconic advertisements with a twist. This time, they changed their marketing slogan ‘for him’ to ‘for everyone’ with each advertisement having their re-designed pictures showcasing more empowered female roles and their message very subtly down on how women and men are equals and their product is for everyone.
This was by far one of the best campaigns for women’s day as it truly showed where the society thought women should be and how far things have changed over the last few decades.
GREENPLY PLYWOOD
A plywood company in India named Greenply Plywood certainly took their International Women’s Day campaign to new heights. “Stop Saying Women Can’t” was their brief for the advert. The video starts with a social experiment where people are asked to find the objects that could be made by a female in a cupboard full of random objects and clothing. The people in the experiment found hand-crafted decors, clothing with traditional stitches and all these other delicate and fragile hand made things and they all answered with those objects. While most of the items on display were mentioned, one thing was left out and it was the furniture itself. The video then progressed where all the people in the experiment were brought into the room and were shown that the cupboard where all the materials were on display was actually made by female carpenters that worked for Greenply.
[ot-video][/ot-video]
This advertisement is extremely delicate and well put because in our society there are unspoken mandates of expectations for what a female is able to do, and no one tends to look outside the box; it is a glass ceiling which is set inside our minds. This idea of female carpenters isn’t just limited to this particular position, it shows that when in the right setting, women can do anything they want to and the glass wall is breakable. It is truly one of the most emotional and empowering adverts that have been made this year.
VOLKSWAGEN
Volkswagen is a German automaker and one of the largest brands in the automobile market in the whole world. They didn’t give in any headlights when it came to International Women’s Day this year. Like all of their campaigns, their message for their audience was clear, fresh and crisp this time as well.
A racecar making donuts and drifting in a sandy racetrack was the intro of the video. As the car stops, the driver makes an exit from the car. As the helmet is taken off, the driver is revealed to be a female. Her introduction came down in small clear fonts; an NCC cadet, a medical student, and a professional racer. The message was creating the perfect balance. The video was titled as “My Favourite Things” and it goes to show, as long as there is a will there is definitely a way to balance and finding time for things that a person loves is empowerment itself.
[ot-video][/ot-video]
Volkswagen illustrated a strong message, a profession can’t be limited to a gender or a single number! The world should create more platforms to keep these options open for everyone.
Apart from these global brands, Bangladeshi ones didn’t let International Women’s Day return home dry, they also caught some amazing spotlights when it came to some of these worth noting campaigns by these creative organizations!
THE DAILY STAR
The Daily Star is an English-language newspaper in Bangladesh. They always provide a unique twist in their campaigns, and their International Women’s Day video definitely made headlines this year. They created it together with Amnesty International, a non-governmental organization which focuses on human rights.
The video starts in the Rohingya Refugee Camp, Cox’s Bazar where a particular woman refugee was being interviewed. She owns a small tailoring business and has a 16-year-old daughter. Her idea of raising her daughter is not the usual norm of their environment; she wants her daughter to grow independent before getting married. So, she teaches her the trade of tailoring even though there is a long line of suitors ready for her. The woman also mentions in her interview that with time and enough finances she would like to expand her business. She only owns one sewing machine and with that, she is able to teach three to four women and help them become independent and the number would increase when she will be able to get more machines. It is quite unique for a woman from this background to want to grow and develop her own skills so that she doesn’t have to depend on any man and especially because she wants to pass this down to her next generation.
[ot-video][/ot-video]
These kinds of morals are something we lack in even educated families let alone people in refugee camps and it is truly something to be inspired from. After all, we live in a day and age where things are extremely hectic, busy and fragile. No one knows where they will stand in the future; so it is a necessity to stand independent in case of mishaps and women can prepare for it too, there are no limits. This unique message of creating a balanced life surely resonates inside all of us and such dainty messages are more needed to make our nation more aware and empowered!
BRAC
BRAC is an international development organization based in Bangladesh and has a lot of ventures going all over the world. Women empowerment has always been a core value for BRAC and many of their projects revolve around empowering women and creating a platform to harness their skills and putting it to good use. This International Women’s Day, they took a different approach when it comes to their campaign.
The International Women’s Day celebrated the empowerment of women and they shared responsibilities of both genders in creating equality; that is what BRAC wanted to highlight through their video campaign. Couples were brought in front of the camera with a small game setup where they were asked a question and both of them had to answer. The questions followed their roles in each other’s lives, their beliefs in the perfect balance of their relationship and the equality in their roles when it comes to their lives. The video ends with a positive note that both of these men and women working together to make a family, and they complete each other’s imperfections.
[ot-video][/ot-video]
It is a strong message to deliver to the audience because we have long passed the ideals that the man is the master of the house and women needs to be in the kitchen. In this video, what comes through the most is that these husbands are appreciative of their wives’ supporting roles in their relationship whether that is because both of sharing the responsibilities equally or because they can do what the other can’t, which truly holds the beauty of a complete marriage.
GREY BANGLADESH
Grey Advertising Bangladesh has created a unique campaign that consisted of a bunch of photographs on its Facebook page. At a glance, the pictures are of black and white macho men with the album title “So, Respect yourself”. If not scanned carefully, it is something that might seem pretty normal and be scrolled by very easily, however, once you take a look, the art is amazingly put.
Their campaign runs with the explanation that all men were created from a woman, regardless of all circumstances, there is a part of a woman in them and that is something they should respect. The whole black and white pictures of these strong masculine alpha men had one piece of a women’s accessories in their photographs starting from rings, bracelets to dainty flower crowns. Every little object a woman can wear was included in these men’s photos. These feminine accessories worn by these alpha males represented the woman in each man without whom they wouldn’t have been here, to begin with. The concept is completely different and mind-blowing and the photography is beyond amazing! To hold such a strong message for women’s day without including a single picture of a female is something worth a praise and it also shows how creative and out of the box thinkers worked behind it.
ROMONI.XYZ
Romoni.xyz is the largest on-demand beauty and wellness service platform in Bangladesh, and they hit the accelerator with the subtle little video they released in honor of International Women’s Day. The video was designed in such a classic set-up that the audience would assume the ending but they left a little twist in the plot.
The video starts off in a couple’s house, with the wife getting a pedicure from Romoni staff while the husband is rushing room to room packing a suitcase. The husband is unable to find the passport so the wife gets up to help and finds it for him almost immediately. Then she shows concern about the fact if he will be enjoying the time when he’ll be alone. In any typical video, you would expect that the husband is going off on a trip and the wife is going to stay home alone. However, this is where the plot changes and the husband responds that he is beyond proud as she will be going off to speak in an international conference. The husband was actually packing her wife’s luggage.
[ot-video][/ot-video]
Such a small little snippet of empowered and leading women in the society in such a subtle manner is definitely something to clap for. This kind of advertisement will help the society to be more accepting of women who want to lead a working lifestyle to be approved and have that equal right of climbing their career ladder without any boundary.
These extraordinary advertisements are the strong picks of this year’s International Women’s Day campaigns and the common theme that went in with all of these campaigns was to create the perfect balance of empowerment among genders. We truly appreciate the efforts behind these creative little messages and maybe the day is not so far that equality can be found in all corners of the world.
