2020/2021 Winners & Shortlists

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.

Tell the jury about the copywriting.

We looked at over a hundred products in our market and discovered sultan was right, Arabic cooking instructions only speak to women. It was time to change the stereotype. We wanted to show the world that Betty Crocker still proudly supports women and believes that the kitchen is for anyone. Working with a linguistic expert we found that Arabic can address both men and women because the kitchen isn’t just for women. We had a way to spread our campaign message to millions, and the medium was where the problem was…on Betty Crocker packs. We created new progressive instructions that addressed all cooks regardless of gender making each pack a symbol of change. By changing over 20 million packs our campaign message, The Kitchen Is For Everyone started in stores, and spread from supermarket shelves to millions of conversations online, on the news, in homes and across social media.