In Russia, men rule. Women’s rights, the few they have, are rarely discussed and are even more rarely the triggers for change.
BBDO Moscow was therefore given a daunting task for International Women’s Day on June 8 this year. The Department of Culture asked the agency to make people in Moscow’s highly patriarchal society more aware of women’s rights. As well as cutting through centuries-old entrenched ideas, BBDO had to cut through the clutter of the hot topics right now – economic crisis and sanctions.
BBDO thought, “cheeky”. It would tempt people to breach one of Russia’s strongest traditions, the partonym. In Russia, people adapt their father’s name to make it their middle name, or patronym. So, the child of Mikhail would have Mikhailovich as his or her middle name. Moreover, the patronym is a mandatory part of each Russian ID.
BBDO asked people to change their patronymic name into a mothernymic one (main image), and launched the 8mamarch site where anyone could do that temporarily, and send a complimentary postcard to their mum with the mothernymic in her honour.
The idea was so unexpected, provocative and daring that in few days the one week campaign had attracted attention, not only in Moscow, but also throughout Russia. The project received a tsunamic of coverage – 363,609,169 earned media impressions to be precise. Ordinary people as well as celebrities shared mothernymic postcards in social networks.
The campaign achieved PR values at US$2,090,516 and content worth US$522,629 in advertising value equivalent. it also triggered an Change.org petition to make it optional to use a patronym or mothernym.
Case study videos often play a star role in campaigns these days. This one does, no question.
How can you not like a case study that opens in a matter of fact manner with the words, “Welcome to Moscow, the city of endless opportunities and ingrained sexism…”
