Empathising with everyday casual sexism is hard, unless one has experienced it personally. It’s difficult to understand what could be so harmful or negative about a "compliment" causally passed by a bystander on one's appearance. Aren’t these women being “over sensitive”? These are all examples of what men and society have said in response to this topic, further emphasizing the inequality of women being expected to adhere to the standards set by men.

Lux, a leading beauty brand needed to take this issue into the real world to allow men to experience it for themselves and understand how every single comment, when experienced daily, can leave a negative impact on women.

Lux wanted to reach men and have them finally understand how it feels to walk 'in her shoes'.

Lux "In Her Shoes" is an interactive experience built in partnership with existing platform ‘City Walks’, that enables anyone to walk the streets and explore the sights in all big cities. But we added one additional feature that enables viewers to walk the streets either as a man or woman. When man is selected, nothing notable happens. You walk with little to no interaction from other pedestrians.

However, when you switch to the female view, you suddenly experience a very drastic change. Men stop her, berate her, compliment her, follow her and intimidate her. It’s a sad but true reality that many women around the world face every single day, and we’ve captured it for all to live, feel and experience.

Experience the "In Her Shoes" walk yourself at http://citywalks.live/. It was also captured and amplified to provoke a reaction and ultimately, urge viewers to think about their own behaviour.

Society constantly forces women to be the ones to change their choices and alter their lifestyle. Don’t wear that, don’t walk alone, don’t encourage interaction. But women shouldn't have to change – the perpetrators are the ones who need to change. So Lux targeted men, the ones who were making women feel uncomfortable walking the streets of their own cities. Lux wanted to turn what men describe as trivial and harmless “compliments” into powerful firsthand experiences that brought to life the compounded impact when a woman is the recipient of these comments not once, but at least 5 to 10 times a day.

Lux “In Her Shoes” campaign has been released at a time when the world is infuriated by the abduction and killing of Sarah Everard and Egypt’s burgeoning #MeToo movement that has exposed sexual assaults, spurred legal reform and emboldened hundreds of abused victims including celebrities to speak out, sparking a long-overdue debate about gender inequality.

Visit http://www.citywalks.live/ and experience walking "In Her Shoes".

This was also hosted at Miraa.me a leading publisher in the Middle East and supported by a social campaign.

Since the launch

1. Traffic to the City Walks website has more than doubled vs pre-"In Her Shoes" activation.

2. Time spent on the site has increased by more than 20%.

3. Lux “In Her Shoes” walk delivered VTRs better than benchmarks indicating the content resonated well with the TA. VTR was 36% better than benchmarks for long digital films.

4. Campaign reached an audience of 25M on Mirraa.me.

5. Qualitative research was done with men who visited the website and experienced walking “In Her Shoes” – and 90% of them said they would be more mindful / think twice before making sexist comments.