Pure Leaf is a brand that values the word “NO”. Pure Leaf says no to artificial flavors, no to tea powders and concentrate, and no to anything that doesn’t make their iced tea better.

So it’s only natural we want to empower women to believe No Is Beautiful by saying NO to the things that don’t bring them value, so they can say YES to the things that do.

Through research we found that many women, especially 35-45 year-old-moms say “YES” to too many things, things that benefit others but are not always good for them.

The goal was to create a brand idea that helped women see why they have a hard time saying no, and encourage them to do the unthinkable and put themselves first whenever possible.

In order to get at the heart of why women have a such a hard time saying NO, we needed to find out where they learned that behavior.

Where does it come from?

And more importantly, why is it that men don’t have a problem saying NO when something doesn’t suit them?

We discovered that one of the first places women learn to say “yes” and not ask questions is as little girls, through fairy tales. Fairy tales continuously perpetuate the notion that young women are often made victims simply because they went along with the program. So, we decided that these age-old fairy tales needed an update, giving the heroines a chance to rule their own destiny and break the shackles of being sweet, agreeable damsels in distress.

Beyond our creative insight, we knew we needed insights rooted in data to show that saying yes and over-committing yourself can be problematic.

We listened to our audience and through focus groups found that the pressure to say ‘yes’ to everything - commitments, meetings, errands, favors, obligations-were common problems women shared.

We wanted to ensure our qual was more than directional, so we put it to quant where we found that 87% of women compared to 65% of men believe that today’s society puts a lot of pressure for women to “do it all” compared to men. And while women more often than not said yes - 83% of women agree that being allowed to say “no” to things would be very liberating – showing that this small action might have a large impact for women.

We launched with a film series called Once Upon a NO on National Fairy Tale Day, (2-26-2020) where we took creative license and re-wrote classic fairy tales. In each story the heroine had little say in her own actions and suffered from the advice of others, so we simply gave her the ability to say NO and chart her own destiny.

Using Amy Poehler as storyteller and props to bring the stories to life, we stopped the fairy tales in their tracks. The single use of the word NO demonstrated to women and girls everywhere that No really can be beautiful.

We earned exclusive stories featuring our fairy tales starring Amy Poehler on People, AdAge and Forbes. Additionally, we announced the campaign through a Good Morning America integration in Times Square.

Overall it was an “aha” moment for many women and those who read fairy tales to their children.

Despite the campaign being cut short by the global coronavirus pandemic, the agency was able to secure an outstanding 68 total placements across online, broadcast, and social media garnering 802 million earned media impressions. Media highlights include Forbes, People, AdWeek, AdAge, NowThis News, Red Tricycle, Moms.com, and MediaPost which embraced our fairy tales with 100% positive sentiment.

Our campaign garnered the following reach:

* YouTube Impressions: 28.3 million

* YouTube Views: 17.7 million

* Influencer Impressions: 13.3 million

* Influencer Actual Reach: 10 million

* Once Upon a No Challenge: 6,901 consumer entries

* Social Engagements on Launch Day: 472

The PR campaign coupled with media and OOH support improved brand distinction with top of mind awareness increasing to 31%. As a result of stronger mental availability, Pure Leaf started the year off strong, experiencing a 10.5% sales lift vs. previous year.