In 2021, a World Economic Forum report revealed a shocking truth – at the current pace of change, gender parity is 135 years away. Which means no woman alive will experience gender parity.

On the issue of gender inequality at home in India, a formidable force slowing the pace of change are brands and their communication that perpetuate gender stereotypes to sell their products. Almost all detergent & food commercials depict women as the caretaker for her family. Men are almost never shown. (Gender Bias & Inclusion in Advertising in India – UNICEF, 2021)

For Ariel, a brand leading the fight against gender inequality at home, this uncomfortable reality shaped its 2022 brief:

1.How do we radically accelerate the pace of change on the issue of gender inequality at home?

2.Moreover, how do we affect a change in the way brands depict gender roles within the home in their communication?

Our target audience were CEOs, CMOs and marketing heads of brands and heads at advertising agencies, media groups and individual content creators across India; people who recognise the world is changing around them and who want to be part of the change. However, find it difficult to change because their current brand strategies and narratives are working well enough. Simply put, why fix it if it ain’t broken!

To help these individuals in position of power and decision making make the change, we couldn’t just get our message across to them in an email. We needed to create a tidal wave of opinions and voices behind our message so that they would sit up, take notice and join Ariel in creating an equal tomorrow.

To do this, we employed a tool used by revolutionaries and agents of change like Martin Luther King – the open letter.

To radically accelerate the pace of change on the issue of gender inequality at home, we kickstarted our movement on 11th February 2022 by taking a defiant stand with our film. For the first time in Indian advertising a wife asks her husband why men can share the load with other men but not with their wives. Is it because they never saw them as equals?

Next, Ariel released the open letter on the front page of leading national dallies with an appeal to marketers and content creators to join Ariel in showing and creating a more equal tomorrow. This caught the attention of influencers and consumers who shared this on their social media. As a tidal wave of opinions and voices swelled behind our message, brands partnered with Ariel to collectively take the message of gender equality into homes across the country.

See Equal #ShareTheLoad broke all records.

Grabbed attention and engaged consumers, influencers, media:

•2300+ clips, 1900 leading news outlets, across 40 countries, became widest PR coverage to-date

•Generated over USD 35 Million in “earned media coverage” across leading local and international news outlets, that’s 3X of Ariel’s annual budget.

•4 billion earned impressions

•The movement film received over 115 million views, and counting, across platforms.

Partners joined in:

•Disney+ Hotstar curated ‘ShareTheLoad’ watchlist

•One of India’s leading newspaper changed its criteria for matrimonial column

•NFT Artists created share the load artworks

•Industry leaders came together for conversation & debates

Brand Impact

•Brand awareness jumped 142%

•Emotional Equities were up 43%

•Brand preference were up 27%

•Sales grew 29%

Most importantly, the movement drove an immediate mindset shift in men:

In 2015, 79% men believed laundry is a woman’s job. This dropped to 41% by 2020.

Today, it stands at 26%.