In a campaign designed to spark a debate in society, there would be no more suitable space than social media. Following the release of the film, which initiated the conversation about extended paternity leave, O Boticário's social media platforms witnessed an organic engagement typical of topics that make success on social media, propelling the campaign to unexpected success. From then on, the campaign ceased to belong only to O Boticário's and became, also, to other brands, institutions, NGOs, content creators, and anyone else who wished to use their platforms to promote the extended paternity leave agenda.

In Brazil is not much different from most other countries when it comes to gender inequality. Men are still expected to succeed in their careers while women are expected to take care of the family and the home. This is reflected in the parental leave law: women have 120 days, and men have only 5. The disparities in employment, pay, and leadership are not simply the result of historical discrimination, cultural bias, or individual choices – they are directly driven by laws and policies – or the lack thereof – that reinforce gender stereotypes. An indirect result of this situation is that, in Brazil, two years after taking maternity leave, almost half of women are out of the job market, according to a study by FGV.

In Brazil, the law guarantees 120 days of work leave for mothers and only 5 days for fathers. Both laws were created in 1988 and have remained unchanged since then. This discrepancy is so normalized in Brazilian society that the journalistic media (newspapers, radio, TV news, and portals) companies and society in general simply did not talk about the topic. However, O Boticário is one of the few companies that offers a 120-day leave for fathers - matching the amount of time allocated to mothers. With the aim of extending this benefit to as many fathers as possible, the brand seized Father's Day to initiate a debate on extended paternity leave in the country.

In Brazil, the law guarantees only 5 days of paternity leave for fathers. O Boticário, Brazil’s top beauty brand, guarantees the same 120 days of parental leave for mothers and fathers alike. So, on Father’s Day, the brand decided to sell a cause rather than products. We focused on social media to run an ad featuring a father spending his first 5 days with his baby. When it comes to the 6th day, it abruptly cuts to the father working at an office. At the end, a lettering that reads “Let’s talk about parental leaving?” invited people to debate the subject. After starting the conversation, social media was used to deepen the debate and promote changes: we published a guide to help other companies in implementing extended leave, shared testimonials from fathers who benefit from the program, and joined influencers to amplify the agenda.

Our strategy was to draw people's attention to the fact we had at hand: fathers only have 5 days to spend with their newborns before returning to their regular work routine. And once we had people's attention, the intention was to take advantage of social media channels to initiate a conversation about extended paternal leave both with individuals and other companies, encouraging them to adopt extended parental leave. We relied on the inherent potential of social media to generate conversations to have a campaign with broad reach. We monitored all the conversations generated from our pieces to echo what other brands and influencers had to say about the campaign, increasing the spread of the message and bringing the issue to the widest audience possible.

The creative execution was an ad featuring a father spending his first 5 days with his baby. When it comes to the 6th day, it abruptly cuts to the father working at an office. At the end, a lettering that reads “For how long will we think 5 days is enough?”. In sequence, another lettering that reads “Let’s talk about parental leaving?” invited people to debate the subject. We also used our social channels to share a supply made to help HR departments, entrepreneurs and companies implement extended parental leave. Besides the film, we gave life to this campaign through posts, lectures and also creating partnerships with pages and influencers who already addressed the topic of "extended paternity leave" in their daily lives.

After the campaign aired, 6 bills proposing extended paternity leave passed in Congress and are under review. It was the most widely discussed Father's Day campaign in Brazil, gathering media attention and even being shown by a group of work in the National Congress in Brasília. The campaign also had high levels of engagement on social media, being shared even by international brands such as Mastercard, Volvo, and Amazon, in addition to major Brazilian companies like the financial sector startup Nubank. In addition to brands, we saw NGOs and institutions (4Daddy, Filhos no Currículo, Instituto Promundo, Maternidade nas Empresas e Escola de Super Pais por Marcos Piangers) that advocate for extending parental leave in Brazil sharing the campaign on social media.

O Boticário became the beauty brand most associated with supporting gender equality. Impressions: 516 million | Reach: 96 million | Online channels visits: 1.8 million.