When an ad can influence the society to change its perspective or challenges a societies thinking, that is where the true success of a campaign stands and impression set in the minds of those who watch it.
In 2015, Whisper came up with an amazingly innovative campaign to counter the age-old, orthodox stigma and taboos surrounding menstruation in India. Menstruating women are discouraged from pursuing normal daily activities during their periods, including going to temples and touching the jar of pickles found in the kitchen of most Indian homes, because the pickles will supposedly rot. A groundbreaking film by the Mumbai office of BBDO India encourages women to defy tradition and taboos by touching the pickle jar.
An active teenage girl courageously touches a pickle jar and proclaims "I touched the pickle jar" as other women applaud. A voice-over urges: "Girls, let's make the taboos go away and touch the pickle jar."
The campaign went viral as more than 2.9 million women pledged to "touch the pickle jar" and Whisper's share of voice grew from 21% to 91% in its category. It created a conversation in India that ranged from a TedX Bangalore talk to the endorsement of a leading Bollywood actress, Parineeti Chopra.
It has won the Glass Lion Grand Prix at Cannes International Festival of Creativity. The Glass Lion category recognizes work that implicitly or explicitly addresses issues of gender inequality or prejudice, through the conscious representation of gender in advertising. The Touch The Pickle campaign was designed as a way of tackling unhelpful taboos related to menstruation commonly found in India.
The reason why this campaign was so utterly popular, and also received so well by the audience and the Cannes Festival is twofold. On one hand, it deals with the taboos surrounding menstruation with a touch of succinct humour. It creates a subtle mockery of the superstitions that society believes in, ridiculing the notion that a woman’s touch becomes impure once she starts menstruating. The aim behind the same in to instil a sense of shame in those who believe, and encourage others to believe, in orthodox notions such as these.
On the other hand, the campaign is immensely successful because of its ability to penetrate into the mindsets of people from all strata of society. Be it upper, middle or lower class, pickle is a commonplace household delicacy that everyone uses. By connecting their campaign with a product that audiences relate to and are familiar with, Whisper has ensured that the message behind the same can be understood by all.