Brief Explanation

Some campaigns can change a brand’s fortunes within a category. Some campaigns can disrupt and redefine categories. And then some campaigns like Whisper’s ‘Touch the Pickle’ moves society forward in a meaningful way, redefines category and changes a brand’s fortunes. In India, prejudice towards women is rife, hidden behind traditional taboos and a culture of shame associated with the cleanliness of their bodies. Against these prejudices are the forces of progress – hidden, yet seismic - that are demanding that women are treated and respected as equal to men. Whisper – one of India’s leading sanitary pads – created ‘Touch The Pickle’, a brave social movement that boldly took on the culture of shame propagated through archaic periods taboos. Whisper’s integrated approach inspired young women to speak up and challenge these period taboos that hold them back. The campaign created a national conversation that got over 2.9 million women to participate and generated over USD 6.1 million in earned-media and prejudice-slamming publicity. The campaign catapulted the feminine hygiene category from an undifferentiated soup of product demos and manufactured promises, to a category that reflects and articulates the aspirations of modern women. Key brand relevance parameters grew by +13pts and sales by a record +4%.