The P&G’s Project
“The Talk”: a campaign about racism and mother’s role
Attending the course of “Introduction to advertising and public relations” at our university, we were asked to select a brand that topped Best Ads Awards for 2018 in Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.
A few words about Cannes Lions…
Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity consists of the Cannes Lions Film jury, which values the ideas, the creativity, the imagination and the variety of the emotions that every participant demonstrates.
In 2018, during the five-day festival, among the participants was P&G too, which managed to be awarded and become a gold and Grand Prix Film winner with its campaign named “The Talk”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4bGnHF30ig
“The Talk” is the name of the campaign “My black is beautiful”, which was published on the 22nd of June in 2018 by Procter and Gamble. It is placed in United States of America and it’s a production of The Corner’s Shop.
Via “The Talk”, P&G broaches the matter of racism and especially the racism of black people. Looking into the awarded film we will observe small dialogues between black mothers and their children.
More specifically this campaign depicts:
· A girl who receives a compliment that she’s pretty “for a black girl,”
· A boy who gets called the n-word,
· Another boy who has faced discrimination on the sports field,
· One mom who tells her daughter she’ll do fine at science camp, but she’ll have to “work twice as hard and be twice as smart”,
· One mom who insists that her son has to take his ID with him to music practice, because it will be late when he returns home,
· And finally, a young woman at the steering wheel who tells her mother she does not need to worry because she’s a “good driver,” but that’s not what the mom’s real concern is.
P&G’s purpose…
By creating this campaign, where “black” mothers are represented to protect, encourage and prepare their children for the “unjust” world, the organization faced the challenge of inequality driven by racial prejudices. Since its debut, the campaign has created a buzz in social media, news, and primetime TV — spreading its word for equal representation, voice, and opportunity. Moreover,P&G company through this film wanted to build up stronger bonds with its “black” consumers.
As a team, we found out that the campaign has two deeper points to display: the racism and the mother’s role.
The racism…
To begin with, by using the term racism we mean the superiority of one race over another and it’s a subdivision of humans into distinct groups. Racism occurs due to someone’s color, gender, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, ethnicity etc. undoubtedly, the consequences on its victims are various such as poverty, unhealthy families and youth, suicides, isolation etc.
Certainly there are many beliefs, actions, movements and policies that oppose to racism in order to lead in a more egalitarian society. On that point, we should keep in mind the 21rst of March as the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
A mother’s role…
Via the P&G’s film also appears the mother’s role. In general, a mother has to support and teach her children how to behave properly. What is more, she gives them the right bases for creating an integrated personality, while she has the ability of solving every kind of their difficulties.
Particularly, “The Talk” project depicts the “black” mother’s role in order to connect it with the racism that the children of the film experience. We should point out that as “black” mother has a harder and more complicated role as she has to explain to her child the variety of discriminations that it will face in its life. That’s why she has to be more supportive and conciliatory with it.
To conclude, as a team, we select the P&G’s film because we wanted to share with all of you the social contribution that the company promotes as a Proud Sponsor of Mothers. Finally, it’s important to mention that P&G via its campaigns, thanks mothers all over the world for their role in kids’ life and motivates them to continue their inspirational contribution.
Surely, we should not forget that:
Mother’s love is the most unconditional and the purest form of love, despite color, religion and nationality.
Αγγελίνα Κοκοβίλη Maria Megalokonomou Stella M. Betty Tsakarestou
Our Power Point of Cannes Lion Film Festival 2018 Task:
