THE BRIDAL UNIFORM

Silver Spike

Case Film

Presentation Image

TitleTHE BRIDAL UNIFORM
BrandUN WOMEN
Product / ServiceANTI-CHILD MARRIAGES
CategoryB02. Non-profit / Foundation-led Education & Awareness
EntrantBBDO PAKISTAN Lahore, PAKISTAN
Idea Creation BBDO PAKISTAN Lahore, PAKISTAN
Media Placement BBDO PAKISTAN Lahore, PAKISTAN
PR MINT PR Lahore, PAKISTAN
Production ALI XEESHAN THEATRE STUDIO Lahore, PAKISTAN
Additional Company UN WOMEN Islamabad, PAKISTAN

Credits

Name Company Position
Ali Rez Impact BBDO / BBDO Pakistan Regional Executive Creative Director
Ali Xeeshan Ali Xeeshan Theater Company Designer
Hira Mohibullah BBDO Pakistan Creative Director
Assam Khalid BBDO Pakistan Creative Director
Aamna Rahim BBDO Pakistan Writer
Assam Khalid BBDO Pakistan Strategic Planning Director
Moiz Khan BBDO Pakistan Associate Creative Director
Huma Mobin BBDO Pakistan Writer
Haroon Rashid BBDO Pakistan Head of Design
Haseeb Akram BBDO Pakistan Art Director
Jamayal Tanweer BBDO Pakistan Digital Business Director
Mian Aleem Ali BBDO Pakistan Production Designer
Natasha Ejaz Audio DNA Music Director
Maida Azmat Mint PR PR Co-ordinator
Eesha Khan BBDO Pakistan Account Executive
Nabila - Nabila's Make up
Tazeen Asaad BBDO Pakistan Account Manager
Ahmed Zafar BBDO Pakistan Graphic Designer
Maraam & Abroo Maraam & Abroo Make up
Fatima Ansari BBDO Pakistan Writer
Abdullah Harris Abdullah Harris Photographer
Ali Rez Impact BBDO / BBDO Pakistan Regional Executive Creative Director

Why is this work relevant for PR?

In what was an incredible PR coup, we hijacked the nation's largest bridal fashion show to launch a new kind of bridal outfit: a school uniform merged with a traditional bridal gown. Regular media covering the event picked up the campaign and disseminated it.

Describe any restrictions or regulations regarding Healthcare/RX/Pharma communications in your country/region including:

Child marriages are frequently permitted in Pakistan under religious reasons. Attempts by human-rights groups to raise the minimum age of marriage to 18 have been shut down by religious groups. Any communication around banning child marriages are immediately attacked as unIslamic.

Describe the target audience and why your work is relevant to them.

The campaign targeted people on two levels. Our first audience was the influencers and media personnel who could build pressure on policymakers and the Council of Islamic Ideology. And second, directly addressing the masses in order to inform them about education being more important than early marriages.

Background

Pakistan has one of the worst records of child marriages in the world. Almost a quarter of all Pakistani women in the last ten years have been married before the age of 18, some even at the age of 6. Pregnancies resulting from early marriages cause severe health complications - girls under 18 years are twice as likely to die in childbirth, while infants born to mothers under 16 have a 60% chance of death. Despite this, bills to raise the legal marriage age to 18 have been rejected previously by the government on religious grounds. Our objectives were to: - Create a stir around the issue that would reach parliamentary figures, and ultimately influence lawmakers to raise the minimum marriage age. - Raise awareness and change people’s mindset regarding this issue so they actually educate their daughters rather than getting them married.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

The strategic insight to the creative idea came from the typical Pakistani bride's elaborate wedding outfit. Every year, the Pakistani bridal-wear industry hosts large events which are attended by celebrities and have extensive media coverage. One could say that the bridal gown is treated itself as a uniform for a bride. We took this audience insight and connected it to the other uniform a girl wears: to her school. By merging the two, we formed a new strategic way into fighting early marriages - through the argument of education: the Bridal Uniform was thus created by fusing wedding gown embroidery with a schoolgirl's uniform.

Describe the strategy (30% of vote)

The World Bank Report states that one of the best ways to end child marriage is to keep girls in school. The longer a girl stays in school, the less likely she is to be married before the age of 18 and have children during her teenage years. Our strategy was to focus on the girl student and highlight the loss of education through early marriages. As a media and PR strategy, by disrupting a platform like the Bridal Couture Week, where brides are meant to be celebrated, we were able to piggyback on the media wave that followed the event, completely hijacking the conversation around it.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

We collaborated with the country's leading bridal-wear designer Ali Xeeshan to create The Bridal Uniform: Ali meticulously researched bridal embroidery patterns to find the right balance between a school uniform and a bride's gown. Golden embroidery was hand sown into a typical government school uniform. We then hijacked the platform of the country’s biggest bridal fashion show: The Bridal Couture Show. As the showstopper of the night, amidst bejeweled adult brides in elaborate gowns, and with the nation's top fashion bloggers recording, out walked on the ramp a little girl wearing a schoolgirl's uniform embellished with beautiful traditional bridal motifs, shocking audiences both live and watching on broadcast. The stunt led to an online petition and was followed by on ground educational activations.

List the results (30% of vote) – must include at least two of the following tiers:

The disruptive live 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 Pakistan. Senator S.Kamran took note of our campaign by name while proposing a bill to raise the legal marriage age to 18. The Islamic Council in turn proposed a groundbreaking amendment: a girl will not be legally allowed to leave her parents’ house in marriage until she turned 18. More recently, the Pakistani Senate approved a bill for raising the marriageable age to 18. The campaign further led to the police no longer turning a blind eye to underage marriages: arrests were made of people who were involved in such practices. It is pertinent to note that while the campaign generated millions of dollars in media coverage, the dress cost only under $100 to make, using existing school uniform samples and inexpensive bridal embroidery motifs.