THE BARBERSHOP GIRLS - SHAVING STEREOTYPES

Short List
TitleTHE BARBERSHOP GIRLS - SHAVING STEREOTYPES
BrandGILLETTE/P&G
Product / ServiceCSR
CategoryF04. Social Behaviour & Cultural Insight
EntrantGREY INDIA Mumbai, INDIA
Idea Creation GREY INDIA Mumbai, INDIA
Media Placement AUTUMN GREY Mumbai, INDIA
Media Placement 2 MEDIACOM Mumbai, INDIA
PR GENESIS BURSON COHN & WOLFE Mumbai, INDIA
Production TOWNHOUSE PRODUCTIONS Mumbai, INDIA
Additional Company ENCOMPASS Mumbai, INDIA

Credits

Name Company Position
Sandipan Bhattacharyya GREY India Chief Creative Officer
Juneston Mathana GREY India Group Creative Director
Pooja Ambulkar GREY India Associate Creative Director
Bhavesh Kosambia GREY India Group Creative Director
Jeh Alexendar GREY India Junior Copywriter
Virendra Saigaonkar GREY India Associate Creative Director
Rahul Jaigadkar GREY India Creative Supervisor
Puneet Prakash Townhouse Director
Anand Bajpai Independent Music Director
Arun Raman GREY INDIA National Planning Head
Yash Samat GREY INDIA Chairman and Managing Director
Nishant Saurabh GREY India Sr. Vice President & Office Head
Nishant Venkatram GREY India Account Director
Yash Jain GREY India Account Executive
Samir Chadha GREY INDIA Agency Film Producer
Mitalee Prabhu Townhouse Line Producer
Jignya Shedge GREY INDIA Agency Film Producer
Nihit Agarwal Townhouse Line Producer
Arnab Gayan Townhouse DOP
Jyoti Narayan Independent Real Life Hero
Neha Narayan Independent Real Life Hero
Chinmay Dalvi Townhouse Assistant Director
Manasvi Sharma Townhouse Assistant Director
Mukesh Thakur Townhouse Offline Editor
Shashank Jha Townhouse Offline Editor
Rishabh Agarwal Tonic Sound Engineer
Suvarna Tiwari Independent Singer
Satya Prakash Aseem Independent Lyricist
Anusha Shetty Autumn GREY Founder & CEO
Noopur Vasuraj Autumn GREY Creative Director
Sasha Munshi Autumn GREY Junior Copywriter
Diya Vasuraj Autumn GREY Copy Supervisor
Nishant Sethi Autumn GREY Art Director
Soumyadeep Ghosh Autumn GREY Video Supervisor
Tuhina Bapuli Autumn GREY Director - Account Management & Servicing
Shalini Ghildiyal Autumn GREY Account Director
Mithun Cotha Autumn GREY Vice President Analytics
Karthik Srivatsan Procter & Gamble Country Marketing Manager, Gillette
Omkar Bhat Procter & Gamble Brand Manager
Sambit Dwivedi Procter & Gamble Assistant Brand Manager
Anshika Maheshwari Procter & Gamble Assistant Brand Manager
Dolly Tayal Genesis BCW India Practice Chair – Brand, Sports and Entertainment
Nithin Rajasekaram Genesis BCW Associate Director
Ashish Sahoo Genesis BCW Senior Account Manager
Karuna Iyer Genesis BCW Senior Account Manager
Karishma Changlani Genesis BCW Account Manager
Saadia Memon Genesis BCW Senior Account Executive
Pranali Gandhi Genesis BCW Account Executive
Rachana Monteiro Mediacom Senior Business Director
Kalpesh Chavan Mediacom Associate Business Director
Radhikarani Sengupta Mediacom National Director
Abhishek Roy Mediacom Business Executive
Neha Bagchi Encompass Account Director
Udit Vyas Encompass Assistant Manager
Mansi Sule Kwan Client Servicing Head

Why is this work relevant for PR?

When you are one of the world’s leading male brands, you have a responsibility to inspire the next generation of men to question gender biases. So while the Barbershop Girls broke stereotypes and changed their destiny, their story had a far-reaching and profound impact. For they have emerged as an inspiration for the next generation of men to question gender biases they grow up with. And who better than Gillette to be the advocate of this encouraging message. This PR led campaign brought together other role models to amplify the cause and create a National conversation about gender stereotypes.

Background

Gender biases are prevalent in rural India. And they get inherited by the next generation in the form of what they see and hear. Therefore, Gillette, as the leading men’s brand took up the responsibility to inspire the next generation of men to question gender biases they’re growing up with. This philosophy found common ground with the true story of two sisters from rural India. While the girls shaved gender stereotypes, Gillette felt they ended up doing much more. Inspired a whole generation of boys to question notions about gender inequalities that are handed over to them. The aim was to get the next generation of men to nip the gender stereotypes in the bud. Before they get cemented in their minds. Because they grow up watching the examples, we set for them.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

Two girls from Banwari Tola, a backward village in India, challenged deep-rooted stereotypes by taking over their father’s barbershop, a profession solely reserved for men. Can their story inspire the next generation to rethink the gender biases they’re growing up with? Gillette saw this as the perfect story to drive the change in mindsets that they wish to see. They told this inspiring story 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 of their film and showed the importance of having positive role models for the next generation of men.

Describe the strategy (30% of vote)

The integrated campaign had two pillars: 1. Amplifying the video that brought alive the story of the Barbershop Girls through social media and online portals. 2. Bringing together opinionated influencers from different strata to propagate the message further so that it reaches a larger audience, online and on ground. • Key Message: - Children learn from what they see. - Gillette is #ShavingStereotypes with #BarbershopGirls to inspire the next generation of men. • Target Audience Indian millennials in the age group of 18-30 years in the middle to upper middle class. This audience is curious about the burning issues around them and would actively like to participate in bringing about change. They are influenced by senior family members and role models in society. They are very active on social media and heavily engage with their chosen influencers online.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

The focus was to carry the message behind the film as much as the film itself. We designed a strategy involving India’s biggest obsessions—Cricket and Bollywood. We brought together top influencers from novelists to musicians to actors and sportsmen who themselves believed in the idea of a gender-neutral world. While they took social media by storm, our real-life barbershop girls took centre stage and gave Bollywood actor-director Farhan Akhtar and celebrity hairstylist Aalim Hakim a shave in front of 50 journalists at a public event. This found more traction right where it all started, on social media. The frenzy was uncontrollable when Sachin Tendulkar, India’s greatest cricketer and UNICEF Ambassador also got a shave from them. The scoop was that he has never been shaved by anybody else, making them the first. • Timeline 2-month campaign: April – May 2019. • Scale: Pan-India campaign across 25 metro and non-metro cities.

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

• Media Outputs: Following the launch of the video, the story of the barbershop girls soon went viral. The message of #ShavingStereotypes and ‘Children learning from what they see’ reflected in these stories. Even the music of the video that was based on repurposing a traditional folk song was applauded. • We delivered more than 500 stories - with 105 print clips and 105 online clips, 4 electronic coverages and a radio channel engagement. The tonality of all the stories captured the message of the film, the girls’ story and the scholarship provided by Gillette for their growth under its Safalta Apni Mutthi Mein (Success in Your Hands) scholarship initiative. • Garnering over 50 Mn views and close to 42 Mn conversations across social media in just 2 WEEKS #ShavingStereotypes caused a conversation unparalleled in India. With over 99% of the comments being positive, there was an outpour of support for the Barbershop Girls, within and outside digital media. Brand conversations went up by over 700%. The campaign earned 2.8 Bn PR impressions worth INR 113 Mn. • Target Audience Outcomes: The campaign impacted a lot of consumers, from different strata talking about the campaign and commending the girls on the incredible work they’ve done that has inspired the next generation of men.

Please tell us about the social behaviour and/or cultural insights that inspired your campaign

In India, centuries of gender bias has stereotyped both the genders with respect to what’s acceptable and what’s not. These invisible, though palpable boundaries dictate roles and rules with respect to what women can and cannot do. Such stereotypes are more stark in Rural India, where lower education levels and lesser exposure to the 21st century world, have normalised such deep-rooted biases. While 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. In most villages, women are not even allowed to leave the house without the permission of a man. These stereotypical gender roles, passed on through generations, have cemented the role of a woman as subservient to the

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