Each year for 8 years, Ariel #ShareTheLoad has been championing gender equality in household chores, finding diverse truths and compelling stories around gender inequality in the home. In the face of persistent patriarchy, this year we raised the stakes by illustrating the consequences of not sharing the load on relationships and families. We found that 81% women felt that unequal distribution of chores has affected their relationship. Idea: See The Signs of ‘Silent Separation’— a term that we coined to describe this relationship distance that creeps in over time. The campaign boosted penetration, consideration and equity, and generated social conversation.

8 years ago, when household products were targeted at women and the detergent category spoke only of functional features, Ariel changed the game by championing gender equality in household chores.

Over 8 years, Ariel’s #ShareTheLoad has withstood strong competition and market forces. Each year, we tell a story that both hits close to home and opens eyes, going deeper into diverse contexts to bring alive the issue of gender inequality at home.

Patriarchy persists despite some mindset-shift over time. In most households, domestic responsibilities still default to women. To raise the stakes, we had to find a way to bring alive the serious, widespread consequences of not sharing the load—not only on women, but on people’s relationships and families.

We needed an eye-opening provocation that would build on our existing authority on the topic, create social impact and beat our behemoth competition and personal benchmarks.

In India the divorce rate is just 1%. This is because divorce is still a taboo. Couples, especially older ones, don’t openly talk about marriage troubles.

But we found that 65% women feel an emotional distance from their spouse, and 92% feel that the distance has grown over time.

In the context of household responsibilities,

•81% of women feel that unequal distribution of chores has affected their relationship.

•78% of women feel like withdrawing from the relationship because of unequal sharing of household chores.

•74% of women have given up talking about sharing housework.

And hence we realised that, while a lot of women stay in their marriage, they silently withdraw from the relationship, instead of opting for divorce.

mOver 7 years, Ariel’s #ShareTheLoad has withstood strong competition and market forces. Yet the pressure remained to outdo ourselves, challenge strongly competing brands, and do justice to the cause we champion.

Demographic profile of target audience: urban Indian women aged 35-65. Psychographically, these women can be divided into2 groups.

Progressive Equalizers, who vocally question conventions, value women’s complex identities and believe in gender equality in the home.

Reluctant-progressives, who believe in gender equality but do not identify or challenge the inequalities in their own homes

Aside from continuing to grow business and salience in various metrics, we wanted to provoke thought and conversation in both these segments of the audience, by championing the former and nudging the latter.

We did Deep Listening through- stories, statistics, conflicts, conversations, news and confessions. Despite divorce being largely socially unacceptable, there has been a rise in silver-divorces in India—i.e., separation after 25+ years. We dug deeper, talking to couples, marriage-counsellors, divorce-lawyers and third-party surveys.

While the divorce rate is only 1%, 65% women feel an emotional distance from their spouse, and 92% feel that the distance has grown over time.

In the context of household responsibilities,

•81% of women feel that unequal distribution of chores has affected their relationship.

•78% of women feel like withdrawing from the relationship because of unequal sharing of household chores.

•74% of women have given up talking about sharing housework.

OUR INSIGHT: Women start withdrawing silently from relationship over time because of unequal sharing of household chores.

CREATIVE STRATEGY: Make men realize that unequal sharing of load is negatively impacting their relationship over time.

IDEA - See The Signs of ‘Silent Separation’ #ShareTheLoad: See the signs of household gender inequality and how it hurts relationships.

EXECUTION -

(1) Coined ‘Silent Separation’ to illustrate how signs of inequality at home hurt relationships in the long-run, spread it in culture through a short-film,using social-media, cinema, print, influencers, national-TV and on-ground.

(2) For the first-time, we turned to an untapped source of influencers. We conducted a sharing session with house-helps who spoke about the signs of ‘Silent Separation’ they notice in the lives of couples whose house they work at.

(3) At a mass vow-renewal event, men went down on their knee, and committed to be equal partners.

BUSINESS IMPACT –

•Penetration grew to 20% with 10.4mm new users. At 63.3 MM HHs, Ariel achieved its highest ever households.

•Sales growth of 35% (7 points above YA).

BRAND IMPACT -

•Highest consideration at 81%

•Increased brand-awareness scores to 71%, exceeding benchmark of 65%

•Overall equity moved to 18 points from 10points in YA, especially in premium households.

•Functional attributes rose: stain removal equity increasing 1.8x YA.

•Attribute that moved the most: “the brand stands for progress and a brand of today”

COMMUNICATION IMPACT -

•154 million views—30% more than 115 million views of YA

•1.4 billion impressions, 0.4 billion more than benchmark.

•Reception of film (Ipsos):

• Brand Attention Index reached 137,exceeding the standard range of 85 to 115- People remembered the ad and unmissably connected it back to Ariel

•PERCEPTION CHANGE:

• In 2015, 79% men believed that laundry is only a woman’s job—it is 26% today.

There were no discounting factors that had an impact on the effectiveness of our work.