An advertisement from Hindustan Unilever’s dishwashing detergent brand Vim went viral over the weekend, causing much confusion and raising many questions. The ad features Milind Soman as the face of a fictitious product called Vim Black for men in an effort to drive men to take on home chores and responsibilities.
The advertisement copy read, “probably the first dishwashing liquid for men”, and showed how doing the dishes guarantees men bragging rights. The ad, conceptualised by Lowe Lintas, was accompanied by a purchase link for the new ‘masculine’ Vim, in a black packaging. The link showed the product as sold out.
In a way, the new campaign takes forward its earlier ad that said ‘nazariya badlo, dekho bartano se aage’. But the response from consumers on the internet was divided, with some calling out the brand for ‘woke washing’ and others commending its satirical take on patriarchy and Indian men who continue to see domestic work as a woman’s job.
Vim eventually had to put out a statement clarifying that while Vim Black was a “joke” the brand was absolutely serious about men owning chores, which in a way indicates that the satire was lost on some social media users.
“Dishwashing in India is traditionally seen as a woman’s responsibility and has been distributed unevenly between family members. The lockdowns enforced a unique behaviour shift, where the men came to the sink and social media went abuzz with men at the sink. The aim of this campaign is to rekindle a perspective change in a non-preachy, quirky way so that chores at home can truly become democratised,” said Deepak Subramanian, executive director & VP, home care, South Asia, in the statement.
For the record, HUL’s dishwashing brand Vim entered the Rs 2,000-crore club in the last fiscal, and was also featured in Kantar’s ‘brands of the decade’ list at the Cannes International Festival of Creativity this year.
According to a company statement, during the past four years, Vim has expanded at a CAGR of 15%, increasing the brand’s penetration by about 85 million additional households.
According to reports, with a 60% share, Vim leads the dishwash category by a long chalk.
What has divided opinion is the rather gimmicky way in which this has been done with some commentators pointing out that the campaign has perhaps done more harm than good.
Yet others note that the brand, through the clever use of satire, is driving consumer conversations and engagement.
“It seems to me that Vim is connecting two social taboos with dishwashing — colour prejudice and men doing
the work. In that sense, it is likely to attract attention.
“Brands do influence mindsets. Think of the negative reaction to the inter-faith marriage in the Titan ad. Brands must do their job without assuming high moral ground. They must do it artfully and persuasively. Like the Tanishq widow remarriage ad,” observes R Gopalakrishnan, former vice-chairman at HUL.
The reality of Indian households is that a disproportionate amount of household work is done by women — five hours versus men’s that is less than an hour.
“Patriarchy is entrenched in marketing as in the name of segmentation, marketers have reduced meaningful differentiation to ridiculous options like pens for her or expensive pink-coloured razors for women. “Here comes an advertisement that not just questions the societal setup but also the marketing idea of gender-based segmentation that too using satire as a creative device. All-in-all, it is a risky combination. But in a single swoop, the campaign was able to shine the light on patriarchy prevalent in the society and marketing community,” states Akshaya Vijayalakshmi, associate professor (marketing), IIMA.
To be sure, Vim is not the first brand to discuss gender equality in household chores.
Its competitor Pril has also been doing it, and P&G’s Ariel too has been running its ‘Share The Load’ campaign for a few years.
Scotch Brite did “Ghar Sabka Toh Kaam bhi Sabhi Ka” in 2018 which had a similar core insight. What remains to be seen is whether Vim will continue to do this strategically and keep the conversation alive.
“For Ariel, #sharetheload is now part of the brand’s ethos — it is even on the product packaging and the brand has extended it to every consumer touch point possible.
“If Vim does not sustain the conversation and mileage it has got from Vim Black, then the campaign will soon be forgotten and meaningless,” points out Naresh Gupta, co-founder & chief strategy officer, Bang In The Middle.
While he commends the campaign for its fun way in delivering an important message, Gupta also adds that there is considerable risk of consumer backlash when dealing with large social issues in campaigns.
Gaurav Arora, co-founder of Social Panga, has the last word — the idea behind the campaign was great but the brand appears to be trying too hard: “It’s not a joke if you have to tell it’s a joke, maybe a part 2 of the film could save the big idea.”