2020/2021 Winners & Shortlists

THE KITCHEN IS FOR EVERYONE

Short List
BrandGENERAL MILLS
Product/ServiceBETTY CROCKER
EntrantVMLY&R Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
CategoryRebrand / Refresh of an existing Brand
Idea Creation VMLY&R Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
Media Placement VMLY&R Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
PR ASDA'A BCW Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

Cultural / Context information for the jury

A new generation of women is making change in the Arab world. From conquering Everest to making history at the Olympics, Arab women are making headlines and breaking stereotypes every day. But despite these changes, they are still stuck with the stereotype- ‘women belong in the kitchen’. For almost a hundred years Betty Crocker has proudly supported women. Or so we thought, until an 8-year-old boy named Sultan, took to twitter and challenged us with a question, “Why are the baking instructions on Betty Crocker’s packs only addressed to women?” The twitterverse exploded in support. It was a moment that made us realize, we needed to make a change. We needed to answer this young boy, and once again show the world that Betty Crocker supported not only women, but chefs of any age and gender. It was time to change the regional stereotype.

Explain how the work innovatively used the print / publishing medium.

It began by coming up with brand-new gender-neutral instructions. Working with a linguistics expert we discovered that gender neutral terms do exist in the Arabic language. But cooking instructions follow the regional stereotype, ‘only women cook’, and therefore only address them. We created new, progressive gender-neutral baking instructions in Arabic to let the world know that the kitchen is for everyone. Betty Crocker has actually been a pioneer of new media for her nearly 100-year history. Using the packs gave us reach to an audience of millions, so we changed over 20 million of them. While the packs for change spread the campaign message onground, we made sultan the voice of our campaign spreading the message of gender quality online, on social media, to influencers, schools, talk shows, cooking shows and news channels, opening eyes and sparking real conversation about equality in the kitchen.

Credits

Name Company Role
Kalpesh Patankar VMLY&R CCO / Art Director
Dhruv Warrior VMLY&R Copywriter
Fernando Miranda VMLY&R Copywriter
Sambhav Khandelwal VMLY&R Copywriter
Ivan Bormaister VMLY&R Art Director
Maria Jabbour VMLY&R Account Manager
Darine ElKaissi VMLY&R Business Director
Sajjad Hussain General Mills Marketing Manager
Azfar Ul-Islam General Mills Marketing Director & Head of Emerging Markets/Channels
Pratyush Kumar VMLY&R Editor
Harvey George VMLY&R Arabic Copywriter
Margaret Flanagan Asda’a BCW Executive Vice President
Samantha Dsa Asda’a bcw Sr PR Executive
Ali Shaikh General Mills Chief Marketing Officer
Ahmed Montaser VMLY&R Art Director
Ines Fates General Mills Brand Manager
Raza Khurram VMLY&R Motion Graphic Designer