NEW DELHI: Fast moving consumer goods company Hindustan Unilever Ltd's (HUL) dishwashing liquid brand Vim has launched a new television commercial that aims to break gender stereotypes.
The company said the campaign is based on the premise that Indian women are thriving in numerous fields and take pride in expressing themselves as homemakers, as mothers, as artists and even as chief executives. But societal limitations of defining them only through chores like caregiving and household tasks are bogging them down.
The ad campaign is directed by Lowe Lintas and has the tagline ‘Nazariya Badlo, Dekho Bartano Se Aage’ which hopes to nudge society to see women beyond archaic roles.
The commercial features a couple, where the man assumes that it is the wife’s job to cook and clean and tries to impress the protagonist by offering to "help" her with cooking tasks. The girl immediately offers to "help" him instead with dishes, nudging him to be independent in household chores as well as she could be held up at work with no time to do the dishes.
The groom-to-be's initial shock and eventual change in perspective drives home the campaign's message to change views. The company said the protagonist in the ad is not only 'more than her chores’ but also a change-maker who calls for equal partnership.
Prabha Narasimhan, executive director and vice president, Home Care, South Asia for HUL, said they were inspired by the successful women who excel in whatever they do, being homemakers and decision-makers.
"They are much more than chores, but sometimes get limited by society’s definitions of them. If we offload them from these societal stereotypes and the stress caused by them, there is so much more they can and will be,’ she said.
The ad is digital for now and will air in January 2022 on television. Prateek Bhardwaj, chief creative officer at Lowe Lintas said this campaign speaks to the mindset that when a man does the dishes, he's 'helping' the woman of the house. An act for which society applauds him, when in fact it's something that he should be doing as a member of the household. Nudging the society to realise this double standard that exists was at the heart of this campaign."
HUL, the maker of Dove, Lux and lifebuoy soaps, Surf and Rin detergents and Kissan jams and Knorr soups, among others, reported an 8.86% year-on-year rise in its standalone net profit at ₹2,187 crore for the September quarter. The company's net profit in the corresponding quarter last year was at ₹2,009 crore.
