The Campaign

In a nation where bruises on a woman are considered a sign of vulnerability, we portrayed them as a mark of a woman’s strength and her #FitToFight spirit, through #BruisesCanBeGood. On International Women’s Day, when everyone’s celebrating strong women, we got the nation talking about something that’s contradictory to their empowerment – bruises. A social experiment was conducted where people were brought face-to-face with a bruised woman and asked what did they think happened to her? 85% of them claimed the reason to be physical violence, bringing to light the cruel truth – violence against women is so common in India that a bruised woman is always seen as a victim. A twist at the end revealed the protagonist's identity – a mixed martial artist, claiming #BruisesCanBeGood if one is #FitToFight. The experiment concluded with a request to sign the petition to make self-defence education mandatory for female students.

Creative Execution

On March 7, 2018, a day before International Women’s Day, we planted unidentified bruised women at prominent locations in Delhi, Mumbai, and Bangalore – India’s top metro cities. This set the prelude for what was to follow. Conversations started floating in the social space with people wondering about the bruised woman they had come across. A petition was written on Change.Org appealing the nation’s leaders to make self-defence education mandatory for female students. Next day, on International Women’s Day, the mystery behind the bruised women was revealed to the nation when we released the social experiment video. The call-to-action at the end of the video urged viewers to sign the petition to make self-defence education mandatory for female students. To disseminate the message of #BruisesCanBeGood, events were hosted in colleges across major cities. The brand’s social channels were used to further spread the message and request signatures on the petition.

Results

#BruisesCanBeGood has stirred the nation, with over 58,000 signatures on the petition so far, asserting the urgent need for a reform for a strong and safe society. The brand plans to take the appeal to the government in person. Different organizations from around the country, from residential welfare associations to state police, have independently taken up the task of providing self-defence education to their female students and employees. The campaign has reached 12.2 million people and garnered earned media worth INR 7.5 million. The #BruisesCanBeGood social experiment has received over 8 million views across multiple digital platforms and increased the brand’s view time on YouTube by 80000%.

In India, 39 crimes against women are reported every hour. Being a women-centric brand, Reebok India wanted the entire nation to come together and take measurable action for women safety. #BruisesCanBeGood talked directly to a closed group of people, before spreading wide to the larger audience through digital media. The brand believed that a real solution needed measurable action, hence a petition was written to the decision-makers of India, appealing them to make self-defence education mandatory for female students. Through #BruisesCanBeGood, the brand called out to every viewer to sign the petition in order to initiate a reform.

The campaign was targeted towards the adult, educated, urban population – both men and women. To bring about a nationwide change, the need of the hour was to take real action and hence, we decided to involve the people who make the decisions for the country – the Prime Minister of India, the Union Cabinet Minister for Women & Child Development, and the Human Resource Development Minister. The only way to get their attention was to speak out as one nation. A petition was written on Change.Org appealing them to make self-defence education mandatory for female students in the country. The next task was to get as many petition signatures as possible, to add weight to our appeal. To achieve this, we planned a response-driven communication that would showcase the harsh reality of the country and urge every Indian to sign the petition.