SK-11 has been the champion of independent Asian women since 2016, when Forsman & Bodenfors launched its first global campaign for the brand, #changedestiny. Young Asian women continue to battle with a conservative society – and conservative parents – both of which tell them that their role in life is to get married and raise children. Women who remain unmarried are considered to have failed. It makes their parents distraught.

SK-11 and F&B realise, too, that challenging the traditional expectations of society and parents is a global issue for women, so the ongoing campaign has a broader message to impart.

In 2016, the partners launched the Marriage Market Takeover turning a tradition in which parents offer their daughters for marriage in a public marketplace into an opportunity for these women to explain their own hopes and ambitions. In 2017, they expanded their efforts by depicting the marriage expectation as an expiry date tattoo which women could erase by realising they have choices.

This year, SK-11 and Forsman & Bodenfors have launched a campaign that coincided with Chinese New Year. Meet Me Halfway follows the real-life stories of three young single Chinese women as they bravely take on the daunting first steps of reaching out to their parents after years of avoiding returning home, as is the Chinese new year tradition, due to marriage pressure. The partners organised for them to ask their parents to meet them halfway – literally as well as metaphorically – so that they could listen to each other’s points of view.

The film shows the women’s first attempts at opening up to their parents about their lives and the marriage pressure they have been dealing with. Their parents began to understand that their daughters were happy and to realise that their lives might be successful. Daughters began to see their parents in a different light realise that the questions from their parents that burdened them were coming from a place of love and genuine care.

By bridging the gap between daughters and parents and facilitating an open dialogue about marriage pressure, SK-II hopes to provide a platform where mutual understanding can be achieved to empower women to make their own choice, in their own time.

“We want to tell women worldwide: Destiny can change, when you have the courage to take the first step to meet halfway, ” explained Sandeep Seth, vice president, Global SK-II.

“We hope the stories of these three brave women can inspire other women to take the first step, start a conversation with their families about marriage pressure and in the process, empower them to live life on their own terms and shape their own destinies.”

Credits:

Creative Agency: Forsman & Bodenfors Singapore
Copywriter: Joakim Labraaten
Art Director: John Bergdahl
Account Supervisors: Susanna Fagring, My Troedsson & Abbe Hale
Account Managers: Hongi Luo & Patrik Danroth
PR-strategist: Amat Levin
Designer: Jason Feng
Planner: Leo Bovaller
Agency Producer Film: Alexander Blidner

Production Company: Tool of North America

Director: Floyd Russ 

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