PLEASE ARREST ME

Gold Spike
TitlePLEASE ARREST ME
BrandRIT FOUNDATION
Product / ServiceGENDER EQUALITY AND HUMAN RIGHTS
CategoryD01. Social Video
EntrantOGILVY SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE
Idea Creation OGILVY SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE
PR OGILVY SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE
Production KNIGHTS MEDIA & FILMS Mumbai, INDIA
Production 2 EDITMACHINE Gorizia, ITALY
Production 3 1908 SCORING STUDIOS Los Angeles, USA
Production 4 CREAM DIRECTORS London, UNITED KINGDOM

Credits

Name Company Position
Nicolas Courant Ogilvy Singapore Chief Creative Officer
Eugene Cheong Ogilvy Singapore Creative
Guilherme Camargos Ogilvy Singapore Creative Director
Aritra Dutta Ogilvy Singapore Associate Creative Director
Jonathan Ollivier Ogilvy Singapore Associate Creative Director
Alessandro Agnellini Ogilvy Singapore Associate Creative Director
Vinicius Cunha Ogilvy Singapore Associate Creative Director
Kevin Wijaya Ogilvy Singapore Senior Art Director
Winona Wee Ogilvy Singapore Copywriter
Alvin Chin Ogilvy Singapore Regional Head of Creative Services
Amanda Devarajan Ogilvy Singapore Copywriter
Xavier Mairesse Knights Media & Films Director
Bijal Sunil Majithia Knights Media & Films Line Producer
Lorenzo Colugnati Knights Media & Films Editor
Sacha Chaban 1908 Scoring Studios Music Director
Sameer Lukka Knights Media & Films Protagonist
Sai Gunuranjan Knights Media & Films Director Of Photography
Jaspreet Ranjan Knights Media & Films Editor
Tarun Jain Knights Media & Films Producer
Anirudh Dhanak Knights Media & Films Producer
Rahul Dhir Knights Media & Films Producer
Ritu Bhardwaj Knights Media & Films Researcher
Nicolas Koon Lim Hogarth Singapore Editor
Abdul Rahim Hogarth Singapore Producer

Background

Some say religion and tradition play a part and India is one of the most patriarchal societies in the world. While most countries have been progressing towards gender equality, India still lags behind. Despite movements like #metoo and celebrities speaking up for the cause in the country, there are still various laws and social rules that place women below men in terms of rights and hierarchy. RIT Foundation is an Indian NGO fighting for women’s rights. One of their biggest challenges is marital rape. India is one of the few countries in the world where it is legal for a man to rape his wife. Despite stats saying 2 in 3 Indian wives are raped by their spouses, lawmakers don’t see the need to prioritise it. We need to create a campaign that sparks conversation within society to pressure authorities to review rape laws.

Describe the strategy

In the short-term, we wanted to raise awareness by creating debate surrounding marital rape. Supporters and naysayers both had fierce reactions to the campaign and soon, survivors of marital rape in India started coming forward and sharing their stories privately with us. To aid them in recovery, we connected them with counsellors in their state. Our long-term goal was to generate enough conversation to pave the way for the Delhi High Court to criminalise marital rape in India, something we achieved when we secured a petition hearing date scheduled 27 March 2020. We targeted liberal Indian women living in Mumbai and Delhi as they would resonate with our cause most. We also looked at South Asian feminist groups, global equal rights advocates as well as high-profile Indian feminist influencers who our target audience followed.

Describe the execution

In a country of 1.3 billion facing many issues every day, your message needs to really stand out. So we raised awareness by getting an activist to turn himself in to the police, pretending he raped his wife. He was let go as innocent, proving the absurdity of the law. We filmed the entire process — from interviews with lawyers & victims to prepare for the big day, to him going into the police station with hidden cameras and the authorities saying that raping your wife is not a crime — exposing how India treats marital rape cases. We launched our campaign on International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. To maintain buzz, we latched on hashtags of news such as the 2019 Hyderabad gang rape and articles of marital rape acquittals in India.

List the results

Please Arrest Me made the headline in India attracting many supporters, but also haters to our campaign for change. Soon, conservatives started flooding our social pages with hate messages, with thousands reporting and successfully taking down our content 4 times. Censorship didn’t shut the debate. Thankfully, the attention helped us gather supporters with bigger influence. To pressure the Delhi High Court, Indian feminist influencers & advocate groups pushed back by sharing our content & encouraging their followers to do the same. Through this, we received countless messages offering to help us out in any way they could, with some even uploading our video on their own social channels. The conversation progressed and the patriarchal society of India was forced to deal with the issue. The case to change marital rape laws will be heard this year at the Delhi High Court, paving the way to criminalising marital rape nationwide.

Links

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