Argentina has two different 100 pesos bills: one portraying a man (Julio Roca), the other portraying a woman. This last one is the only bill featuring a woman in Argentina’s history. And not any woman: Evita Perón, someone who’s remembered for fighting inequality between sexes. As Women’s Day was approaching, we came up with the idea of raising awareness about the gender pay gap by making the bill with a woman’s face on it worth 27% more than the one with a man’s face on it, meaning while Roca’s bills were worth 100 pesos, Evita’s bills were worth 127. This way consumers could become conscious in a very concrete, tangible way of the injustice in how much men and women are paid for the same work.

During the whole month of March, everyone who came to the stores was informed at the cash register that they could either pay with a Roca bill, that would be worth the standard 100 pesos, or with an Evita bill, that would be worth an extra 27 pesos. After the cashiers would explain why, surprised, people would reach for their wallets to find an Evita one.

We doubled our media reach thanks to earned media. Respecting brand tracking, the trust value went from 2,2 to 4.1/5. Meanwhile, in Instagram our engagement rate grew more than 7 points. The initiative was commented and shared by more than 15 opinion leaders. Which is more, that month became their most successful yet. And 86% of costumers paid with bills that portrayed a woman.

While most local brands look the other way and avoid controversy as the feminist wave gets bigger, we wanted to start a conversation about a concrete and tangible problem regarding gender inequality: the pay gap. Moving away from the usual emotional message, we decided to actually take some action in order to spread awareness. By tackling a relevant topic in a different way, we caught the attention of media and influencers, and through a number of earned media tactics we got them to spread our message and reach thousands of people in spite of our limited budget.

Dulce de leche is usually tied to tradition, but we realized we needed to be a brand that was tightly tied to the spirit of the times. A brand that doesn’t try to be loved by everybody like all others, but one targeted towards the bold and the progressive. That meant that, it needed to be a brand that isn’t afraid to speak out

DDL is a tradition that reaches all classes, genders, ages and backgrounds. Unfortunately, so does sexism. And since 81% of women eat it daily, we figured this would be the right issue to focus on.

The feminist wave has been the strongest one in the region. Yet this remains a country with a deeply ingrained patriarchal culture. Where did we see it every day? Each time a costumer opened their wallets: six different men were portrayed in the bills, while only one woman had hers.

DDL&Co sells dulce de leche (a sweet preparation similar to caramel) and all kinds of sweets made with dulce de leche under the tagline “argentine flavors”. They are proud to be a small company with a big vision. And this is why they wanted their first advertising campaign to tackle a big and relevant issue. But dulce de leche is a very popular Argentinian confection, and there’s a lot of competition around, both from artisanal producers like them and well-known industrial producers. Therefore, the campaign needed to have both some local flavor and an ingenious idea that would differentiate them from the rest.