POLITICAL SHAKTI + THE TIMES OF INDIA | The Nominate Me Selfie | 2022
A Selfie, Turned Into a Resume / Political Shakti + The Times of India "The Nominate Me Selfie"
There's a campaign that turned selfies into "nomination resumes" sent straight to political parties. Women wrote their achievements and experience right onto their own photos, then sent them all at once, with no way to look away, to the phones of male-dominated party leadership.
The problem
India is the world's largest democracy, yet only about one in ten lawmakers is a woman. Women make up half of all grassroots political workers, but their names don't even appear on candidate lists for state assembly elections. They were putting in the work on the ground, but they simply weren't being seen.
The insight
The problem wasn't a lack of ability, it was a lack of visibility. So the goal was simple: turn these faceless workers into faces staring back from party leaders' phone screens. The selfie, something everyone already takes, was flipped into a tool for political demand.
The idea
The campaign launched in Bihar, one of India's poorest and least literate states. Partnering with 140 NGOs, it reached out to 45,000 villages, where women party workers took selfies with their achievements written on them and sent them via WhatsApp to local party leaders. In just 2.5 hours, the selfies reached 126 elected representatives all at once. The faces of these women appeared simultaneously in the palms of politicians' hands.
What happened
Hundreds of selfies made national news, and the number of women elected reached an all-time high, up 25%. In Bengal, the ruling party allocated 45% of its candidate seats to women. The campaign won the first-ever Fusion Pencil at the One Show, a Grand Prix at Spikes Asia, and a Silver Lion at Cannes.
Afterthought
Rohit Ohri, Chairman of FCB, said, "Within the simplicity of an idea lies the potential for massive change." An everyday selfie became a weapon for reclaiming democracy. That's the power of a single photo.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Gold 2022
