2020/2021 Winners & Shortlists

Background

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.

Describe the strategy

Sultan’s tweet was watched over 450k times, received 8.5k likes and was retweeted over 3.5k times. His simple question had generated a wave of interest and support around the topic of gender equality. We needed to answer him and a wider audience. Our goal was to show the world that the Kitchen Was For Everyone. Betty Crocker supported all chefs regardless of gender, age or race. So, we changed the cooking instructions on over 20 million of our packs making them a symbol for change. The first thing we did was to share the new packs with Sultan and make him a voice for our campaign on social media. He became the Boy Who Changed Betty Crocker and we shared his story online, reaching the same audiences who first followed his story. Leading with digital it only took 3 days before Betty Crocker became a trending topic.

Describe the execution

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. Because the kitchen is for everyone.

List the results

We didn’t create a campaign. We created a movement, sparking real conversation about the role of men and women across the region. The main outcome? Over 20 million packs of Betty Crocker products were changed with new Arabic baking instructions. The packs can be found in the following supermarkets: Carrefour, Spinneys, Waitrose, Danube, Lulu, Panda and Choithrams. In just three days our campaign reached millions organically. • A total print circulation of 231,300 was secured. • A total reach of 34,239,976 was secured • The total add value secured was $128,345 • The total PR Value of $449,208 was secured.