FMCG Brands Fight for Equality

In Brazil, women run 96% of family kitchens – but only 7% lead award-winning restaurants. So Stella Artois financed the country’s first ever survey on gender inequality in gastronomy. The beer also invited women chefs to translate the study’s findings into “uncomfortable” dishes – and boosted bookings in women-led restaurants by 42%. It also offered $10m in media spaces, $60m in loans and more than 1000 gastronomy scholarships, showing how to go beyond raising awareness by offering long-term investment.

As part of its ‘Dirt Is Good’ positioning, Persil showed menstruation in all its shapes, flows and contexts through an exhibition and a book. Its message? It’s not the stain that’s the problem – it’s the stigma. Reaching 38 million people, the campaign shows how to use an existing brand platform to challenge taboos.

Dove created deckchairs for larger women on Brazil’s beaches. The beauty brand made the design and production assets an open-source file, available online for any manufacturer. “Making the chair widely available was a wonderful way to celebrate and promote body positivity,” said Outdoor Lions Juror Wendi Dunlap, EVP, Business Intelligence and Audience Science, Mediahub. “That contributes to the brand affinity that Dove has been so expert at building over the years.”

To highlight the abuse that women gamers receive online, Maybelline invited two popular male gamers to use voice-changing tech and feminise their profiles. The footage reached 65.2 million gamers and generated 449.9m global impressions. It demonstrates how to anchor allyship in a brand mission: the link to Maybelline’s Brave Together mental health platform gave the makeup brand legitimacy in this space.

Budweiser launched a call to action for potential sponsors of the National Women’s Soccer League, creating nine placeholder products for some of the biggest sponsorship categories in sport. As a result, the league announced six new sponsors and a salary increase of almost 20%. It shows how to lead by example by making it easy for other brands to get involved.