Being a women-centric brand, Reebok India has one mantra for the women of the nation – be #FitToFight, that is, be physically, mentally and socially strong. The brand endeavours to spread awareness about gender disparity in the nation with campaigns covering issues such as women empowerment, equal pay, and eve-teasing.

In India, 39 crimes against women are reported every hour (Crime in India 2016 report by National Crime Records Bureau). The plight of Indian women can be understood by the fact that every third woman in India, since the age of 15, has faced some form of domestic violence (National Family Health Survey). These facts bring out the gruesome reality of women safety in India.

Realizing this gravity of women safety, Reebok India wanted to extend its message of #FitToFight and ensure that every woman exhibits the fighting spirit. To do so, the brand had to find a way to ensure that every woman knows how to protect and defend herself if ever the need arises.

On March 7, 2018, a day before International Women’s Day, we planted unidentified bruised women at prominent locations in Delhi, Mumbai, and Bangalore – India’s top metro cities. This set the prelude for what was to follow. Conversations and questions started floating in the social space with people wondering about the bruised woman they had come across.

A petition was written on Change.Org appealing the nation’s leaders to make self-defence education mandatory for female students.

Next day, on Women’s Day, the mystery behind the bruised women was revealed to the nation when we released the social experiment video. The call-to-action at the end of the video urged viewers to sign the petition on www.bruisescanbegood.com.

To disseminate the message of #BruisesCanBeGood, events were hosted in colleges across major cities. The brand’s social channels were used to further spread the message and request signations on the petition.