THE AMMADA TRUST | #GIVEHER5 | 2017
Getting Back Five Days / THE AMMADA TRUST "#GIVEHER5"
One by one, girls vanish from the classroom. This is the story of girls in India who miss school every time they get their period. One in five of them ends up dropping out of school for good.
The problem
In India, 350 million girls miss five days of school a month, every month, when they're on their period. They can't afford period products, there's no bathroom to use, and no one's taught them the basics. Many turn to cloth or ash, risking infection. Women in the cities barely knew any of this was happening.
The insight
Boiling it all down to "five days" was a smart move. Add it up and that's 60 days a year, a sixth of a girl's life, simply gone. The influencer Miss Malini disappeared from social media, saying it was because of her period, and thousands of people followed her lead. By showing absence, they made the missing girls impossible to ignore.
The idea
For 150 rupees, about $2.5, a washable, reusable period product called Saafkins can last a girl a full year. The video shows nothing but a single classroom. Every time a period comes around, another seat sits empty. No explanation needed.
What happened
Within 24 hours of launch, the campaign brought in 1.4 million donations, enough to cover 40,000 days of periods. The TV channel Zee volunteered to air it for free, and Bollywood actors helped spread the word. Within a month it reached 1.2 billion impressions, and 7.4 million girls went back to school. It won Glass Lions Gold at Cannes Lions and a Graphite Pencil at D&AD.
Afterthought
Proving you exist by disappearing. That reversal is what makes this work so well. A specific number, 150 rupees, and a number anyone can count, five days. It didn't stop at making people feel something, it turned that feeling into action. Trying to see what's normally invisible, I think that's what advertising is really for.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Gold 2017
