Approaching the 2018 Olympic Winter Games, the world had been rattled by societal unrest. From the largest women’s march ever in Washington, D.C., to uprisings all over the globe, people everywhere were expressing their discontent with living on the sidelines of opportunity and equality. During the Olympic Games, people from all over the world and from all walks of life come together under a common cause. A moment when, no matter how divided the world may be or how insurmountable the differences between us may seem, the whole planet comes together to embrace the things that we share instead of those that divide us. We wanted to use this moment and the Olympic stage to inspire a global conversation through the lens of moms.

We found the answer to this brief in a simple yet universally relevant sentiment: unconscious bias is a force that threatens human potential globally, and our moms are our first advocates—the original activists. In big and small ways, they fight for us, encourage us, and herald our potential whenever they get a chance. In a time when our differences threaten to divide us, a mom’s love shows us what it means to stand by each other, hold each other up, and champion one another no matter what. Through the work, we set out to show the impact of bias on people's lives, whether it’s race, gender, religious, disability, sexual orientation, or class, and how when bias rears its ugly head, a mother’s love can overcome. Just imagine what the world would be if we all saw each other through a mother’s eyes.

Through the work, we set out to show the impact of bias on people's lives, whether race, gender, religious, disability, sexual orientation, or class, and how a mother’s love can overcome. Every time there was a need to add a collaborator, we became increasingly intentional in building a team that included women, people of color, people from different cultural backgrounds, and members of the LGBTQ community. The campaign launched 100 days before the Opening Ceremony with a :93 anthem film, when the Olympic conversation began with media and consumers. We continued to bring our story to life at highly relevant moments leading up to and during the Olympic Games via content generated/distributed across paid, earned, and owned channels that told deeper stories of real Olympians who faced bias. On the ground in Pyeongchang we held a panel where Olympians spoke on gender bias.

The response was overwhelmingly positive, with moms worldwide posting their personal testimonies of experiences with bias and authentic influencers like Ellen DeGeneres and Tyler Oakley credentialing the campaign. We also co-created content with relevant mezzo and micro influencers who are active in bias conversation to continue sharing and amplifying our assets. Socially, we dominated the conversation over all other top Olympic sponsors at 100 days and remained big and popular through the Games, resulting in 300 million video views and more than five billion earned media impressions globally.

“Thank you, Mom” is part of a long-running campaign that has given P&G a deeply emotional platform to drive global positive change. As the world’s largest advertiser—whose brands, in aggregate, touch the lives of five billion people every day—early on, we challenged the Olympic work to serve a higher purpose. During the Olympic Games, people from all walks of life come together under a common cause. A moment when, no matter how divided the world may be or how insurmountable the differences between us may seem, the whole planet convenes to embrace the things that we share instead of those that divide us. We felt that the traditional “moms do it all” message would have been somewhat tone deaf considering the times we live in and the current challenges of our world. We wanted to use this platform to inspire a global conversation.

This has been a longstanding journey for P&G, joining other campaigns that bring attention to gender bias, such as Ariel’s Share the Load, Always’s Like a Girl, SK-II’s Marriage Market Takeover, and P&G’s We See Equal, and campaigns highlighting conversations about racial bias, as in The Talk, and sexual orientation, as in Vicks’s Touch of Care and Secret’s Ladies’ Room. As the world’s largest advertiser, we have a unique opportunity to reach billions with a positive message through our advertising. We can use our voice to be a force for good and shine a light on the bias that limits human potential. We hope to promote an open discussion, influence attitudes, and ideally change behavior.