BBDO takes home inaugural Glass Lion Grand Prix at Cannes Rules gender equality space with 3 of 8 Glass Lions

BBDO Worldwide affiliate BBDO India, Mumbai won the Grand Prix in the inaugural Glass Lion category at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2015 held in Cannes, France recently for its ‘Touch the Pickle’ campaign for sanitary protection brand Whisper. BBDO agencies also took home 2 of the 7 other Glass Lions awarded: Impact BBDO, Dubai, UAE for ‘Give Mom Back Her Name’ for UN Women and BBDO India, Mumbai for ‘Share the Load’ for Ariel Matic laundry detergent.

The Glass Lion was launched by the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, with the active support of LeanIn.Org, to recognise great work that implicitly or explicitly addresses issues of gender inequality or prejudice, through the conscious representation of gender in advertising. According to Cannes Lions, the criteria was marketing that promoted more inclusive, gender-aware forms of brand communication, rooted in creative excellence. It was expected that winners will have achieved this via a range of approaches including clear, progressive messages and less obviously active tactics. Even the composition of the jury – eight women and only two men – was a major departure for an awards show and furthermore, the 2015 entry fees for the Glass category will be donated to gender-equality causes.

The Grand Prix winning ‘Touch the Pickle’ campaign launched by BBDO India, Mumbai for Whisper chose to give tackle the challenge of period taboos, and more importantly, giving women a voice to do so. In India, periods are treated as taboo, no one talks about it and as soon as girls hit puberty they are introduced to several ‘don’ts’ such as ‘don’t worship’, ‘don’t enter the kitchen’, and perhaps the most ridiculous – ‘don’t touch the pickle’. Almost every home in India stores pickle in a jar and menstruating women are not allowed to touch this jar as it is believed that if ‘impure’ women touch it, the pickle will spoil. The campaign launched with a film showing a young woman touching the pickle jar and went viral as more than 2.9 million women pledged to “touch the pickle jar”. It created a national conversation in India that also encompassed a TedX Bangalore talk, an endorsement from a leading Bollywood actress and even a guide – Menstrupedia.

President of the first Glass Lions jury and Founder CEO of IfWeRanTheWorld and MakeLoveNotPorn Cindy Gallop told Ad Age of their decision: “Ultimately we unanimously agreed on work tackling a gender issue that impacts every single woman worldwide; does it in a way that is innovative and disruptive while entertaining and engaging; comes naturally from a brand for whom effecting change in this area is not only its innate social responsibility but of tremendous business benefit; and which has achieved amazing results in one of the most conservative markets in the world.” She added (to Ad Age) that the campaign “does it for a brand, rooted in its brand values, and taking on a responsibility we’d like more brands to take on.”