International Men’s Day: Campaigns That Celebrate Men
Today is International Men’s Day. You didn’t know that? Well, no worries. We too didn’t untill we saw #InternationalMen’sDay trending. Here’s a funny yet thought-provoking video that aptly describes what many men must be thinking today.
ATTENTION: And this is a must-watch!
Yes, they are right to a great extent. We celebrate Women’s day with great grandeur and elan, but when it comes to Men’s day, we seem to be a little reluctant celebrating them. But we thought of changing it. Over here we’ve collected some amazing campaigns centered on men. This is an effort from our side to celebrate the silent heroes of women’s lives!
1) Movember: It’s all about Men’s Health Awareness: It’s November, but you also can call it Movember. It’s a men’s health awareness campaign, launched in 2004, and is celebrated throughout the month of November.
In this campaign, men are encouraged to grow a moustache, or you also can call it a “Mo”. Apparently, this campaign may seem like a no-brainer, but it has proved a highly effective one to raise awareness and funding for men’s health. Even though the campaign was quite dormant in the initial 2 years but thanks to social media that it took off well in 2006. And believe it or not, this campaign alone raised over $120 million for research on prostate cancer in 2011. The uniqueness of this campaign lies in its approach to address an apparently embarrassing topic with a relatively light-hearted and projected symbolism.
2) He: Be Interesting: #ShowMenSomeLove and #WearBlue When the entire world is celebrating International Men’s day, India too does not want to lag behind. Emami’s men’s deodorant brand, ‘He’ comes up with a unique concept to celebrate the day this year.
The video which we shared earlier is a part of the campaign. If you contemplate, you will see a latent sarcasm behind laughter and fun. The campaign tries to focus on gender equality, a much talked about topic these days, but has somehow lost its true essence. To promote and celebrate the day, the brand came up with two hashtags, #ShowMenSomeLove and #WearBlue. You will notice many funny but true one-liners doing the rounds on the social media platforms. The brand also introduced a contest to support the campaign where the winner would get an iPhone 6.
3) The Old Spice: Smell like a man, man! Old Spice is all about manhood. “Smell like a man, man” – well, no woman wants her man to smell like a girl. And who would better promote it other than Isaiah Mustafa?
Mustafa has now become the face of Old Spice social media campaigns. The most viral one was the occasion when the brand let him interact with the fans directly on their YouTube videos. The video of the main campaign got overnight success and an immense buzz from a couple of celebrity fans including Ashton Kutcher. The USP of their videos is – funny coupled with a polished wit.
4) Be ‘MARD’: To promote men against rape and discrimination Actor Farhan Akhtar, Bling and JWT Digital created a campaign to raise awareness among young men of the country about physical and mental abuse against women. The campaign is called “MARD”, which means “men” in HIndi. “MARD is an initiative asking men to rethink their own value system. To think about what are the various characteristics and traits that blend into each other to make a man,” Farhan wrote on his Twitter. To raise awareness, the actor flaunted a moustache – the symbol of real men (MARD).
The campaign was cenetred on a heart-touching story. In August 2012, Pallavi Purkayastha, who was an employee of Akhtar’s production house, was raped and killed in her own apartment. The incident shook Farhan so much that he initiated this campaign, just to protest and raise awareness. Soon the campaign got recognition, both from the B-town as well as the mass. And many celebrities started promoting the cause in their own ways.
5) Dollar Shave Club: For the “F*****g Great” Blades! If you ask men about one perennial problem they face everyday, they would say 1. They have to pay way too much for razors and 2. Worse! They forget to buy them. To solve these two issues, a smart start up took the web by storm with their product. And this time, the weapon was a viral video. Let’s see it first.
Isn’t it filled with great wit? The video starts with a winning statement, “For just a dollar a month, we send a high quality razors right to your door.” And that one simple sentence solved both the problems at once.
The target audience for this product was young adult men. And Mike was the perfect model to feature in the video. Conceptualized by Upright Citizens Brigade, the video perfectly shows if you understand the pain point of your customers, you will be the front-runner.
6) Nivea For Men: ‘Shave it or Save it’ or ‘hot or not’? Have you ever tried to find out if your facial hair looks hot or not? Nivea for Men could have allowed you to figure this out. Presenting the famous “Shave it or Save it” campaign, which was launched to encourage men to go into a “hot or not” battle. The idea was to market Nivea For Men Sensitive range.
This campaign was meant for Australian and New Zealander men, where they were asked to join football star David Williams, or should we say “The Wolfman”! Men were asked to submit their photos with facial hair and leave them for others to vote. This was to let them understand if they should trim it or save it. As prizes, there were iPads, Men’s Health magazine subscription and Nivea For Men new product hampers for grabs. The basic intention to run this campaign, apart from introducing new product line, was to enhance brand sentiment. Too bad, if you missed it!
7) Carlsberg: The tough & scary-looking guys aren’t always bad Imagine this – you’re with your friend, and 2 of you enter a theater. And guess what? The first thing you see that the theater is crammed with scary-looking bikers with just 2 seats left for you. What would you do? Would you go inside and watch the movie or slip out of the theatre?
In this campaign, the agency filled 148 seats of a theatre with hulk-like bikers and left two seats at the center. Couples who’d the guts to go inside and took the seats with the intimidating-looking guys won cold beers from Carlsberg.. This campaign was designed to salute and reward people who were courageous enough to go beyond their comfort zone. And yes, didn’t believe in the first impressions. What an awesome way of storytelling! During the first month of its release, the video got 11.7 million views, just because people were relating to the emotion and how! Here’s a newspaper story on how a group of bikers ( the tough guys) in the New York area are trying to act on the behalf of animals when people abuse them.
8) Going Home: And an imaginary world that can exist ‘Going Home’ is all about an imaginary world, where every women would feel safe, even in the darkest hours of the night, even if she is alone amidst a bunch of strangers. Alia Bhatt plays the protagonist here. The video shows her driving on a deserted road at night. Her car breaks down and then she sees a bunch of men who don’t “look safe”. First they see her then they turn their vehicle and stop near her car. A girl in such circumstances would have feared rape. But not this one. She comes out of her car and what happens next is something impossible. This is a must-watch video for every man.
Yes, this is impossible in the world we live in today. It shows a world that every woman would love to think “exists”. The video ends with a positive message – “Can we give her the world that she believes exists?” With that note, we wish Happy International Men’s Day to all the men out there!