Title | THE BRIDAL UNIFORM |
Brand | UN WOMEN / ALI XEESHAN THEATER STUDIO |
Product / Service | ANTI-CHILD-MARRIAGES |
Category | A01. Glass |
Entrant | BBDO PAKISTAN Lahore, PAKISTAN |
Idea Creation | BBDO PAKISTAN Lahore, PAKISTAN |
PR | MINT PR AND IMAGE CONSULTANCY Lahore, PAKISTAN |
Production | ALI XEESHAN THEATRE STUDIO Lahore, PAKISTAN |
Production 2 | THE VIDEOGRAPHERS Lahore, PAKISTAN |
Name | Company | Position |
---|---|---|
Ali Rez | Impact BBDO / BBDO Pakistan | Executive Creative Director |
Ali Xeeshan | Ali Xeeshan | Designer |
Hira Mohibullah | BBDO Pakistan | Creative Director |
Huma Mobin | BBDO Pakistan | Writer |
Assam Khalid | BBDO Pakistan | Strategic Planning Director |
Aamna Rahim | BBDO Pakistan | Writer |
Haroon Rashid | BBDO Pakistan | Head of Design |
Haseeb Akram | BBDO Pakistan | Art Director |
Moiz Khan | BBDO Pakistan | Associate Creative Director |
Jamayal Tanweer | BBDO Pakistan | Digital Business Director |
Mian Aleem Ali | BBDO Pakistan | Production Designer |
Atif Pasha | BBDO Pakistan | Production Manager |
Eesha Khan | BBDO Pakistan | Account Executive |
Tazeen Asaad | BBDO Pakistan | Account Manager |
Fatima Ansari | BBDO Pakistan | Creative Associate |
Raza Shah | Stopmotion Digital | Production |
Abdullah Harris | Abdullah Harris | Photographer |
Zara Gul | Zara Gul | Make up artist |
Ahmed Zafar | BBDO Pakistan | Graphic Designer |
Ali Rez | Impact BBDO / BBDO Pakistan | Creative Director |
Assam Khalid | BBDO Pakistan | Creative Director |
The Pakistani bride is known to wear an elaborate wedding outfit: bright, colorful, heavily embroidered dresses with flashy jewelry. Every year, the Pakistani bridal-wear fashion industry hosts large events in which new styles are revealed. These shows are typically attended by local celebrities and have extensive media coverage. This year, our idea was to hijack the country's largest bridal fashion show, where we would launch a new kind of bridal gown: one that highlights the fact that an early marriage results in loss of education and empowerment for a girl. We collaborated with the nation's best known fashion designer to design the "Bridal Uniform": A typical Pakistani schoolgirl's uniform was merged with a traditional Pakistani bride's wedding gown, through the use of local embroidery patterns and motifs sewn directly into the uniform. And on the night of the biggest show, we surprised everybody by revealing it as the show-stopper.
The Bridal Uniform had been created by merging traditional wedding outfit embroidery patterns with a common government school girl's uniform. Renowned fashion designer Ali Xeeshan had meticulously researched bridal gown designs and found the perfect balance of what a school uniform would look like as a dress for a wedding, and hand stitched the piece. To perform our stunt, we picked the biggest bridal fashion show in the country where we knew we would get maximum media coverage. The project was top secret, and even the show organizers were not aware of the stunt until it was revealed.
A sitting senator of Pakistan's parliament took note of this campaign and a bill proposing to raise the legal marriage age to 18 has been sent to the Islamic Council of Pakistan, who has agreed to review it. The senator has DIRECTLY acknowledged the effect of this campaign in the efforts to pass the bill. The disruptive stunt went viral and generated almost 500,000,000 social and news-media impressions, more than any campaign for this cause has ever done in the country. The topic of child marriages started trending, and both the international and local press reported on it. #BridalUniform, besides being adopted by on-ground local NGOs to educate villagers on the importance of keeping girls in schools, has also made an appearance on Berlin and LosAngeles catwalks, and talks are underway to feature the stunt at New York Fashion Week to highlight the same issue in seven different countries.
Our strategy was to connect directly with the public by surprising them and piggybacking on the media wave that followed the event, completely hijacking the conversation around it. The stunt was then followed by on-ground educational sessions that addressed the issue where it truly made a difference. The campaign targeted people on two levels. Through the stunt, we first targeted the influencers and media personnel who could spread the conversation that built pressure to involve policymakers. And second, through on-ground sessions, directly addressing the masses where these practices were widely prevalent. The dress cost under $100 to make, which was the total cost of the campaign. The highly publicized media event was hijacked at no cost.