In a recent World Economic Forum gender equality ranking, Japan came in at 114th, last among industrialized countries. This inequality is especially prevalent within the home. In fact, Japanese women spend 7x more time on housework than their husbands—one of the most unequal ratios in the world. This, at a time when there is an historic high of women in the workforce in Japan, leaves them even with less time for household chores. SC Johnson wanted to spur on change and encourage more gender equality in the household by inspiring men to share the responsibility of house cleaning.

Women in Japan are recognized has having equal legal rights and equal opportunity of education to men, but there have been several events, including recent scandals at universities, that put this understanding in question. One situation with Tokyo University was shown to have admissions restricting women.

In addition, traditional expectations for married women and mothers are cited as a barrier to full economic equality. Taking care of the family as well as the household are seen as a predominantly female role, and working women are expected to fulfil it. Even though 69% of women are now working, the ratio of the average time spent on housework chores between men and women is 1:7.

Japanese children grow up cleaning their classroom together, equally. However, later in life, after marriage, gender inequality sets in with men shirking their duty to help cleaning in the home and women doing all or nearly all the work at home. We decided to demonstrate this gender bias through a real-time social experiment. We chose a typical Japanese classroom, and during a day in class, with parents observing, the teacher asked only the girls to clean, while the boys were allowed to go outside and play. Watching on a monitor in another room, the parents were shocked to witness the inequality. But then, afterward, the couples asked why they felt that way when it only mirrored what happens within their own home.

Gender equality in Japan is a charged issue. Brands especially have been lambasted for reinforcing old gender stereotypes. As such, we needed to find a way to create a meaningful impact and incite behavioral change, while not issuing blame and fostering negativity. We knew from research that Japanese couples are happiest together when they share their home cleaning duties. And so our strategy was to shine a light on the imbalance and use it as a trigger to bring couples closer together under the strategic platform, #CleanTogether.

This social experiment played out in a film released in social channels to underline the social change. A non-branded Twitter account became the sponsor of the movement with thousands of Twitter conversations spurring from the original post, with both women and men sharing opinions and posing questions as well as expressing self-reflection amongst the key audience. A landing page became the hub of the campaign expanding the story further with pictures of families who have embraced a better balance at home. After millions of people engaged with the campaign, SC Johnson’s home cleaning products put out a thank you ad in national newspapers expressing appreciation for those who pledged to address the inequality in their own homes.

“Refresher Course” was viewed over 4 million times in just the first two weeks after launch, spurring thousands of social comments. The film not only became a hot topic within industry publications such as Campaign, but also elicited articles and comments among those such as New York Times correspondent Makoto Rich, as well as gender equality luminaries like Cindy Gallop—providing extra fuel to the conversation.