2020/2021 Winners & Shortlists

Why is this work relevant for PR?

The campaign was a PR response to a tweet addressing Betty Crocker from an 8-year old boy named Sultan questioning us about why our cooking instructions only addressed women. Twitter was behind Sultan. Our research revealed that cooking instructions follow a regional stereotype and address only women. So, we created new, progressive, genderless cooking instructions changing over 20 million packs to show the world that The Kitchen is for Everyone. The Kitchen Is For Everyone campaign is driven by PR, to help change gender stereotypes, improve the public image of Betty Crocker and spark real conversations about gender equality.

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 creative idea (20% of vote)

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.

Describe the PR strategy (30% of vote)

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. Through PR we made Betty Crocker’s values clear to all audiences. First we shared Sultans story and then shared Betty Crocker’s response to him using different PR channels. The result was a narrative between two figures that complimented each other and created a picture for the public that put our campaign message in focus, The Kitchen Is For Everyone.

Describe the PR execution (20% of vote)

Sultan’s tweet was watched over 450k times, received 8.5k likes and was retweeted over 3.5k times. His simple question had generated huge interest and support around the topic of gender equality. Our response needed to show the world that the Kitchen Was For Everyone and that Betty Crocker supported all chefs. So, we changed the cooking instructions on over 20 million of our packs making each pack a symbol for change. Our first action 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. We created a narrative that was celebrated Sultan and Betty Crocker, a PR story that spread across multiple touchpoints.

List the results (30% of vote)

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 super markets: 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.

Please tell us about the social behaviour and / or cultural insights that inspired your campaign

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’. We looked at over a hundred products in our market and realized Sultan was right. Arabic cooking instructions were addressed only to women. Working with an Arabic linguist, we found that gender-neutral terms do exist in the Arabic language that can address both men and women. But cooking instructions follow the regional stereotype and only speak to women. That was the starting point for Betty Crocker to become a champion of change. We had a way to reach millions of home chefs and let them know that the kitchen is for everyone-through our packaging.