Wonderchef Asks the Dear Man to Hold the Pan
MUMBAI: A woman in India spends 300 minutes every day on an average doing chores in the kitchen. Compared to this, men spend only 29 minutes. The kitchen is thus, still considered a woman's domain, far removed from the winds of gender parity, sweeping the country in many other areas. Wonderchef, the leading brand of premium cookware and kitchen appliances, has launched a campaign 'Dear Man Hold The Pan' to increase awareness and create conversations about this disparity.
Wonderchef has released an interesting video to bring this cause to light. Based on a social experiment, the video comprises conversations with various men and women based on their real-life experiences regarding the roles they play in their kitchen. Wonderchef partnered with its agency Social Beat to create this extremely insightful and entertaining piece of work. The Idea behind the Campaign The woman is still considered the 'cook' of the house and the responsibility of the kitchen falls in her lap. With more and more women working today, it is hard for them to manage both work and kitchen without any support.
Ravi Saxena, Managing Director of Wonderchef, said, "To truly achieve gender equality, all gender roles must be revisited and revised to benefit both genders. Cooking is a basic life skill and not a gender-centric responsibility. It's high time that in the new social paradigm each one of us realize this. This conversation is important, but often ignored." The challenge was how to engage the men to begin conversing about this issue. The brand decided to take this cause up, to spread awareness and engage both genders in understanding the situation, in a light-hearted format.
Conceptualizing and Creating the Campaign Mr. Suneil Chawla, CEO of Social Beat said, "The idea was to see what men felt about the status of gender equality in India and their own endeavors in the kitchen." A short, engaging quiz was created for the same. It was relayed to men of varied ages and backgrounds, to have a representative sample. The core message of the campaign was captured into the phrase: Dear Man Hold the Pan.
The Launch The video caught fire as soon as it got launched. It went viral, bringing a smile to the face of everyone who saw it, but also achieving its incisive purpose of awakening the viewers to this gender disparity. The video is currently being played on FaceBook and Instagram and has already reached over 2 million combined views. The brand also ran an influencer marketing campaign in which over 75 celebrities and lifestyle influencers supported the cause with the hashtag #IHeldThePan. Some of the influencers that were a part of the campaign include Aly Goni, Swapnil Joshi, Harshavardhan Rane, Jay Bhanushali and Rohit Khandewal. Lakhs of people have agreed with the message. Many have found it relatable and taken a resolve to implement this in their daily life, and also to spread the message in their circles. "Wonderchef has indeed been able to send out the message it desired about gender equality in kitchen, to the universe," said Mr. Saxena. "The social experiment continues unabated in our exclusive outlets across India. We will not let this flame die!" he added.
