Crime has nothing to do with what you wear, Ajio tells women in new campaign

Conceptualised by Phantom Ideas, the campaign #NotWhatIWear highlights the prejudice that women in the country have to face. Ajio as a fashion brand encourages women to express their personal style freely and fearlessly

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Mumbai | February 6, 2017

Click on the Image to watch the TVC.

News of violence against women in our newspapers and channels is disturbing. But what is even more disturbing is people's reaction to such news. Comments like 'she was asking for it', promptly absolves the men involved in such acts of savagery and blames the women.

A long list of dos and don'ts is charted out for women with diktats like 'dress according to Indian culture' taking much prominence. Taking this recourse to 'victim blaming' is the heart of a campaign Ajio.com has come out with a film titled #NotWhatIWear.

Conceptualised by Phantom Ideas, the film is a montage of models walking down the ramp in cardboard boxes with questions like “I'm wearing a little black dress. Is that a crime?” written on them. The film, throughout its one minute 20 seconds run time, takes up similar issues related to women's clothing and the stigma attached to it.

Speaking about the thought behind the campaign, Robert Anthoney, Founder and Chief Creative Officer, Phantom Ideas, said, “The whole thing stemmed from the reality that all of us are aware of, that women are being treated very badly, crimes against women are on the rise and the situation is getting worse by the day and to top it off there is apparently a section of the society that believes that the woman is at fault. So the blame has shifted to the women while the real culprits go scot-free. The woman here is now in a defensive position where she is answerable for all the choices that she has made in terms of the way of she dresses, she behaves, etc. Now as a fashion brand we believe that there is something fundamentally wrong in blaming the woman for all this and we all also believe everybody, both women and men, should have the freedom to express themselves. We realised that there is a shift between what is really happening in the world outside and what we believe in as a brand. This was basically the idea behind the campaign.”

But a lot of brands have come up with similar communication in the recent past that take up causes of women empowerment. Was there any fear of their own voice drowning out?

“We are aware of the fact that a lot of people have taken up similar causes. But the way we like to put is that there is an existing conversation and we are just adding our voice to that conversation. We are also aware that some people might not hear our voice because the conversation itself is so loud. We would of course like to be noticed but I think that is secondary to the fact that we are lending our voice to the issue and this is what we are saying about it,” said Anthoney.

Well, hopefully the more the people talk about it, more people will listen!

The TVC:

https://img-cdn.thepublive.com/filters:format(webp)/bmi/media/post_attachments/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Ajio.jpg

Credits:

Client: Ajio.com

Agency: Phantom Ideas

Creative:

Creative Director: Robert Anthoney

Copy Writer: Karthika Kothandaraman

Art: Pradeep Kumar, Sanoj Gopinath

Digital: Jayant Mishra

Account Management:

Business Head: Rajat Ray

Account Manager: Gautam Kathpalia

Production House: Inglorious Films

Director: Siva Romero Iyer

Info@BestMediaInfo.com

Info@BestMediaInfo.com