India is known as the land of doctors, engineers, IT professionals. However, there is a dark side to this achievement which comes at a shocking cost - of Indian parents force their kids to following particular career, irrespective of the kid’s natural potential.

Academic supremacy is the weapon of choice, and children's individuality the sacrifice. Even in today’s times, 82% of Indian parents are dictating career choices. Our children's voices are silenced under the expectations of their parents and society. We love cricketers and actors but don't have the gumption to let one be nurtured under our own roofs.

As a brand strongly advocating progressive parenting and standing for the voice of children, Bournvita had a very simple objective – AWAKEN SOCIETY AND PARENTS INTO RECOGNISING THAT CHILDREN SHOULD NOT BE FORCED TO CONFORM TO THEIR DIKTAT.

To awaken society and parents into understanding the sheer injustice and perhaps stupidity we were doing by forcing our children to conform to one size fits all career choices, we went to the heart of each home - the kitchen!

To show the effect force has on kids' futures, we forced the iconic Bournvita Jar Indians have known for decades, to be what it wasn't meant to be.

A Toilet Cleaner

A Glass Cleaner

A soap box

An Egg carton

A Tissue box

A Cooking Oil Can

A Ketchup bottle

and even A face cream jar.

The jars showed how wrong it was to force millions of kids to be what they weren’t meant to be.

Parents were urged to buy these packs and pledge their support as an acknowledgement of the injustice and to show faith in each kid's unique talent.

YOU DO NOT FORCE A SQUARE PEG IN A ROUND HOLE

Even in 2022, 82% of parents are deciding what careers their kids should choose and over 93% children aged 14 are aware of only 7 career options - Engineering, Finance, Computer Applications, Medicine, Design and Law. Whereas there are at least 250 options to choose from depending on talent and passion areas.

Bournvita is a brand targeted to children aged 6 to 15years across SEC A/B/C - the defining years to identify talent and hone skills.

On India's National Children's Day in 2021 - we unleashed 'The Bournvita Forced Packs' on to Indian parents prodding them awake with images of the Bournvita Pack forced to be everything it wasn't meant to be.

Starting on the weekend of November 14th, 2020, India's National Children's Day Indian parents were exposed to a multi-pronged campaign.

The limited-edition packs were put up for sale both online and offline:

1) Parents could buy these odd-shaped Bournvita Packs through modern trade stores like Star Bazaar stores (Tesco)

2) A direct-to-consumer brand website allowed parents to purchase the packs and pledge support for the #FaithNotForce initiative

3) Cross category banners prompted by searches of actual toilet cleaners or tissue-papers and such prompted consumers to buy the Forced Pack and take the pledge

4) The front page of India's leading Daily featured the powerful message and link to the website

After all this, a powerful video featuring the initiative and real consumer reactions was placed on our digital platforms and subsequently shared by consumers and partners like BRUT India and MadOverMarketing.

Bournvita achieved the desired behaviour change by getting parents to show

#faithnotforce in their kids’ potential and garnered love as the true parenting partner.

1) Two Forced Packs was bought every 3 mins. 24 pledges per hour were made during the launch week.

2) Our message reached 24 Mn people in just a day on Youtube

3) We garnered accolades from competition and earned PR of 9 Mn

4) CTR, VTR and engagement surpassed benchmarks across platforms

5) In a degrading category, sales increased by 15%

6) The Forced Packs even became a lesson in schools.

What is unmeasured is the sheer outpouring of support, comment and critique we saw buzzing around the industry and in parenting circles.