Categories Name : Social Media

Sub-Category : Best Use of Social Networks/ Social Media

Entry Name (Campaign) : Gillette - #ShavingStereotypes - The Barbershop Girls

Covering Note / Overall Experience

India ranks 108th on the World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Index. This startling statistic points to the much-needed change for a gender-equal India.

Gillette, a brand that encourages every man to be “The Best A Man Can Be” believed that educating men on the elimination of deep-rooted gender biases was a great place to start in order to inspire the next generation of men to be better.

Showcasing role-models that have defied gender stereotyping, Gillette managed to bring this cultural bias into public consciousness, aided by active conversations led by key opinion leaders.

Concept

It’s odd that the world’s 6th largest economy(1) ranks 108th in gender inequality index(2). Armed with this piece of information, we started questioning why we haven’t made much progress when it comes to gender equality.

In India, its rural parts especially, a male is occupied in everything outside the house - farming, working, earning money; women are restricted to tending to home and hearth. Cooking, cleaning and child-rearing are the only “permitted” roles. These stereotypical gender roles, passed on through generations, have cemented the role of a woman as subservient to the male.

We realized that we are all born without any pre-conceived notions about gender and learn and imbibe all that we know about it, basis what we are conditioned to believe by our cultural environment.

Nobody is born with an inherent understanding of gender roles, it is acquired.

YOU ARE NEVER BORN WITH BIAS, YOU GROW UP BIASED.

Knowing this, it became crucial to change how children look at gender and the roles they play in society at large by showing them a new set of role models who challenge the ‘norms’ of gender roles, so that they can create a more gender equal world.

Sources: (1) – FocusEconomics Top 10 The World’s Biggest Economies For 2019-2020; (2)- World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Report, 2018

Innovation

This was the first time in India that a men’s brand featured women as protagonists of their film and showed the importance of having positive role models for the next generation of men The background score of the film, too, was a new take on the traditional ‘Sohar’ that is sung to celebrate the birth of a boy in North Indian village. The film’s version altered the lyrics to celebrate the birth of a girl child.

Execution

Gillette attempted to drive change in mindsets through the story of two girls from Banwari Tola, a backward village in India, who challenged deep-rooted stereotypes by taking over their father’s barbershop, the running of which is solely reserved for men.

The story was told through the eyes of an 8-year-old boy, who witnesses gender biases around him and is conditioned to think it’s normal. That’s until he meets these two girls running a barbershop, which compels him to question everything he’s been growing up with.

This was the first time in India that a men’s brand featured women as protagonists who could show the importance of having positive role models for the next generation of men.

The background score of the film was a new take on the traditional ‘Sohar’ that is sung to celebrate the birth of a boy in North Indian village. The film’s version altered the lyrics to celebrate the birth of a girl child.

Top influencers, from novelists to musicians to actors and sportsmen, who themselves believed in the idea of a gender-neutral world, were brought together to create an unprecedented national conversation in a matter of days.

Gillette announced a scholarship to further the careers of the girls. They underwent training under India’s top hairstylist and took centre stage at press events where they gave Bollywood celebrities a shave. This sparked even more conversations.

Gillette launched their ‘Success in your hands’ programme with this campaign to further empower positive role models to continue inspiring change.

Results

With Barbershop Girls, Gillette, the market leader in the shaving category, kickstarted its efforts to bring alive ‘The Best A Man Can Be’, moving away from simply talking about how it is ‘The Best A Man Can Get’ when it comes to fulfilling his shaving needs.

Once the video was uploaded on various social media platforms, celebrities and stalwarts like Sachin Tendulkar, Farhan Akhtar, Mahesh Bhupati, Shobha De, Swara Bhaskar, Radhika Apte among many others began to talk about it on television and their social media handles.

In less than a month:

• - The video had 53 million views (1)
• - The campaign engaged over 47 million people (2)
• - Positive engagement was 99% (3)
• - Brand conversations went up by 700% (4)
• - Total impressions reached 2,81,84,87,136 (5)
• - PR value earned was worth $4997490.79 (6)

Sources: (1) To (6) – Media Agency’s Data