Cannes Contenders 2023: BBDO India

India had a great run at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in 2022, with a total of 47 metals.

 

We start the build-up to the 2023 edition, with our annual Cannes Contenders series.

 

Campaign India aims to lead the charge from this region by showcasing all of India's entries to the festival through our 'Cannes Contenders' series. 

 

This is based on the premise that Cannes jurors don’t get enough time to scrutinise and deliberate a piece of work they haven’t really come across before. This series is a way of acquainting them with the good work from India and South Asia before their judging stint.

 

BBDO India has five such entries:

In its eighth year of getting men to share the load at home, Ariel, India’s leading detergent brand, decided to dig deeper. 

 

While the divorce rate in India is only 1%, 65% of women feel an emotional distance from their spouse. 

 

And 81% of women feel that unequal distribution of chores has affected their relationship over time.

 

To make men aware and act, Ariel launched See the signs of silent separation.

 

We triggered the conversation with a film that introduced a new term called ‘Silent Separation’.

 

Silent Separation – The emotional distance that creeps into marriage because of inequality at home.

 

When a father opens-up about his marriage, his sensitive and empathetic daughter is moved to tears. She tells him that mom has been giving and giving for so long, that maybe she has just given up. This makes the father realise that he ended up taking his wife for granted. He apologises to his wife and commits to be an equal partner. At the end of the film, Ariel urges men to see the signs and share the load. 

 

The message got amplified by the immense coverage it received. Over 1,100 publications covered the film across 45 countries. 

 

Taking things a step further, we reached out to a group of untapped influencers – the house help.

 

A hundred house helps came together and unearthed the unspoken signs of silent separation they had witnessed. 

 

And taking a cue from the film, we organised a mass re-proposal, where married men went down on one knee in front of washing machines and took a vow to be equal partners.

 

The brand’s commitment to the cause unlocked massive brand preference and consideration, and also had a positive influence on the society. 

 

More than 90% of couples agree that doing chores together will improve their relationship. 

 

Ariel - See Equal #ShareTheLoad

See Equal #ShareTheLoad is the fifth phase of the longest running movement against gender inequality at home. The campaign was celebrated at Cannes 2022 with a Lion and 4 shortlists, and is invited for creative effectiveness this year, as a campaign that has not only unlocked massive brand preference and consideration, but also had a positive influence on the society. 

 

A World Economic Forum report says gender equality is 135 years away.  Which means no woman alive will see gender parity in her lifetime. 

 

To accelerate the pace of change, Ariel took a more defiant stand. In a country where women are conditioned to never challenge their husbands, the wife confronts her husband and asks why men like him can share the load with other men but not with their wives, is it because they never saw women as their equal?

 

See Equal #ShareTheLoad was a bold new tone for the country, and it created instant news. It triggered millions of uncomfortable conversations. 

 

To further catalyse the movement, Ariel made a confession on the front page of leading dailies, with an open letter, that urged all content creators, media partners and advertisers to help change the imagery. 

 

Partners joined in. The Times of India, country’s biggest media house amended their matrimonial section, where men can now also state their willingness to #ShareTheLoad at home. Disney+Hotstar curated a list of movies and shows that has better representation of women. 

 

Ariel turned its packs into a silent protest. For the first time, Ariel changed the names on its packs with names of hundreds of Indian men. 

 

Ariel - See Equal #ShareTheLoad long-term

 

Ariel’s #ShareTheLoad is the longest running movement against gender inequality at home by a brand. We started in 2015, by raising awareness with a pertinent question, ‘Is laundry only a woman’s job?’

 

In 2016, we uncovered the source of this inequality. The deep-rooted social conditioning. We addressed it with a heart-wrenching apology letter. 

 

In 2018, we asked ‘are we teaching our sons, what we’ve been teaching our daughters?’ It was discussed at the world economic forum. In 2020, we challenged another hidden cultural issue. 71% of Indian women sleep less than men, due to unequal distribution of household chores. 

 

In 2022, there was a shift in the tone of the brand’s movement. To accelerate the pace of change, Ariel took a more defiant stand. In the film, the wife confronts her husband and asks why men like him can share the load with other men but not with their wives, is it because they never saw women as their equals? Ariel turned its packs into a silent protest. For the first time, Ariel changed the names on its packs with names of hundreds of Indian men. 

 

Year after year, we’ve spread the message of share the load, through unique new touchpoints. Wash care labels, matrimonial sites, cultural calendars, comic books, colouring books, OTT platforms and NFT art. 

 

When we began in 2015, 79% men believed that laundry is a woman’s job. That number is down to 26% today.

 

WhatsApp - Scam Se Bacho

In India, digital payment scams are valued at USD 1.55 billion.

 

Their biggest victims? Our beloved baby boomers. 

 

Payments on WhatsApp, decided to step-in and help the older generation by recreating the most iconic Bollywood song from the '70s, turning it into a melodic lesson about digital payment safety.

 

The song chosen was “Aye Bhai Zara Dekh Ke Chalo” (“Hey brother, stay safe while you walk”), a song from the popular 1970 Bollywood movie ‘Mera Naam Joker’, which is widely popular across all age groups. 

 

The original song, featuring Raj Kapoor, played a huge role in popularizing the common phrase “Aye bhai”, which is a friendly interjection used across generations.  

 

The original lyrics were a friendly word of caution, warning people to look before they walk; we rewrote the lyrics, telling people to look again and be mindful of digital payment scams.

 

The video that picturised the song captured rampant scams currently affecting the target audience.

 

The music video soon became a tool for the highest authority figures of the country to combat scams. Several state police departments shared the song on their social media accounts as a friendly reminder to stay safe from scams.

 

Ralco Tyres - #NoPressureDelivery

 

Ralco Tyres have been highlighting the capability of their tyres that have gone through numerous ‘Pressure Tests’. At the same time, food and delivery apps have been reducing the delivery time to as low as 10-minutes to beat the competition, adding more pressure on the delivery riders. 

 

The quick delivery timings forced delivery riders to overspeed and break traffic rules, just to deliver on time. This led to the core thought of our next socially relevant message, ‘Pressure is meant for tyres, not people.’

 

Ralco Tyres introduced a simple action for the users of these delivery apps to reduce the 10-min delivery pressure on the delivery riders. In the delivery instruction section of the app, we urged the users to add the words, ‘No Pressure Delivery’. This way the riders get to know that they needn’t rush and risk their lives to deliver the order within 10-minutes. 

 

We chose the ideal influencer to take this idea forward. Someone who has always been the voice of the underrepresented. With Bollywood actor and activist, Sonu Sood, we propelled the #NoPressureDelivery initiative to a wide audience, garnering over 47 million video views. This emboldened tto he mothers of the delivery riders make an impassioned plea for change. All of which nudged the delivery apps platform to review the 10 minute delivery time.