Brazil was the last country in the world to abolish slavery. And it is also the country where slavery still exists. Slavery cases of people are denounced until today. In this context, racist terms incorporated into the language contribute to the normalization of the slave, racist and prejudiced culture still pervaded in the country.The #criadomudonuncamais movement also influenced the critical consciousness of society and made people mobilize spontaneously for the cause. Through their social networks they became the main means of propagating the movement´s message, which gained strength organically and promoted a necessary cultural transformation.

The term “servant” was originally given to enslaved blacks who did domestic work. As some plantation owners found it uncomfortable to speak, they simply pulled out their tongues. Later, the idea came up to place a small table to be next to the bed. It was used, basically, to support glasses, clothes and makeup. When they realized that the furniture had the same function as the servants, they also started to call them servants. So, in order not to confuse the two, the piece of furniture was called a Mute Servant. The story behind the name of the furniture is impregnated with racism, so we had the objective of getting this word banned from the Brazilian vocabulary.

On Black Consciousness Day we created the #MuteServantNeverAgain (#criadomudonuncamais) movement. A movement that aims to abolish the racist term from our vocabulary. For this reason, we made our stores and websites delete the term racist, replacing the term with “Bedside Table”, the correct name to be used.With a film broadcast in digital media, we draw people´s attention to the cause, causing them to mobilize on social networks, to the point of convincing large competing stores to join the movement and also remove the racist term from their stores and websites.

“Mute Servant” is a racist term, which has always been widely used throughout the country. Changing the name of the furniture only in our stores and websites would not be enough to promote the historic repair we wanted. We had to make an impact, gaining popular support. Therefore, we decided to create an engaging movement, where the people were the main propagators of the message proposed by the movement. To engage people, we strategically started the campaign on Black Awareness Day. We did this through the action of changing the name of the furniture in stores, on our social networks, a film that publicized the movement on the internet and the hashtag #criadomudonuncamais. With the popular appeal on the rise it became easier to convince other brands to join the movement and also exclude the term.

The Budget was very short, approximately R$ 10,000.00, so we divided our campaign into two stages to guarantee maximum effectiveness.

Phase 1 - Etna takes the step forward.

On 11/20 all of Etna's 9 physical stores dawned differently, the terms “Mute Servant” were crossed out and together there was a letter explaining why the term was being erased in stores. In digital, in Etna's ecommerce, the term was also crossed out and our film telling about the movement was already taking over social networks.

Phase 2 - Etna invites competitors to participate in the movement.

Right after the first moment, we invited some competing brands to join the movement as well. With the strength of popular engagement, more brands than we expected were also convinced to support the cause.

Spontaneous media alone generated more than R$ 1 million from the movement. But the most important was the impact on society.

Competing brands like Tok & Stok, C&C, Leroy Merlin and Mobly decided to remove the term “Mute Servant” from their stores and websites.

The demand for the term “Mute Servant” fell by about 30%, while the term “Bedside Table” increased its use by 400% after the campaign. In addition, the search for the meaning of the term “Mute Servant” grew by 2,800%. Showing the cultural awareness that the movement generated.

Many of the words we use in the Portuguese language spoken in Brazil started to be used in the 19th century, and most of them have racist origins. Often the historical significance of some of these words goes unnoticed. It is our responsibility as communicators to identify these words and to extinguish their use in our vocabulary. One of these words identified a piece of furniture that is very popular with Etna consumers. That piece of furniture that is next to the bed, which historically in Brazil, for racist reasons, has been called “Mute Servant”. The term racist alludes to the enslaved blacks who spent the night by the bedside, silently holding a glass of water for their masters. We create a movement that made people propagating agents for the extinction of the use of that term, changing the behavior of society in relation to this matter.