I noticed this tweet by Zoiro (The Zoiro?) asking men to show respect to women "like never before" by uploading a vector image of a man with facial hair (or their own face) with a bindi because Men Wearing Bindis Y Not.
I found that amusing to say the least. So I asked Twitterverse to point me to all such campaigns that were presumably intended to be witty or creative. Here are some gems:
Women shop because... ever heard of ReTaIL THeRaPY
Every woman is uniquely beautiful. But also only white.
No. I get that you are MTR and you want do something, but doing the exact opposite of this (associating women to domesticity alone) is what International Women's Day is about. Yes, it's the reality in India, which is why it needs to be broken. Getting a man to cook for a woman might have made it better, don't you think?
Women holding signs with adjectives. Cuz that's super new and never seen before.
More sign-holding with badly photoshopped text.
Enough with the sign slactivism!
And there are some stumpers too. Like this Amul one.
And this one.
And this. Why would you ruin that video with that tweet?
??!?!?!
No, success is not measured in numbers. And the only numbers your images show are the ages of the women.
Hey Myntra, you missed a ;) smiley. What is this? Are the shapes supposed to mean something now or is pink still the bestest colour ever – oh-em-gee-barbies?
Guinness record for most people painting their fingernails simultaneously. What an aspiration for women and little girls (because it's Women's Day, assuming men shouldn't be involved in this, yeah Inglot?).
Offering close competition to the Worst Campaign Ever is the "It's your day, but make sure you remember #NotAllMen. #SorryNotSorry but here's Kohli's face we think women like it." (Friendly advice: listen to the copywriter who says, "That does not sound right," guys.)
SMS campaigns are not far behind either. Because shoes...
... and phrasing...
... and all things twinkly sparkling lights and goddesses and WhatsApp forwards.
I'm off to go try pampering my womanhood for a while now. See ya, womens.
Oh, before I go, here are some campaigns that were done right.
General women's health queries answered:
Awareness about women's bone health
Women in sport, daily fitness, girl child education:
They could have done this anyway, but love how they picked out an opportune moment to fund a team that most people wouldn't even know existed! Hope there's a follow up.
Ariel probably won the day. It's refreshing to see the narrative shift from "a superwoman who has it all – house, family, career, kids, money, yada yada" to equal contribution – the actual need of the day.
Remember, if you can't decide whether what you're doing is right or offensive, just be irrelevant and safe.