The latest United Nations Women campaign ad is making a powerful statement about the long road toward gender equality. The searches were captured in Dubai by the ad’s creator, Christopher Hunt of Ogilvy & Mather. However, Copyranter found that many results are the same in the U.S.
Why exactly does this ad break so many boundaries?
First, it proves that these attitudes have made their way to the information age. While most people would associate Google with progress, it instead acts as a mirror that shows the world medieval mindsets are downright popular worldwide. Popularity is a key factor in Google’s autocomplete feature, however, Google claims to block suggestions that include hate speech against protected groups, including hate speech based on sex. On top of the apparent popularity of these searches, they were not deemed offensive or hateful enough to be removed.
The ad also challenges patriarchy at its core rather than framing gender issues in terms of legal equality. UN Women works to increase women’s leadership and economic empowerment across the world, and could have easily singled out any number of forces opposing these goals. The opposition could have been outdated laws that do not afford legal standing to married women, men who traffic women into slavery, or lack of access to resources. Instead, the ad agency identified the biggest opposition of all?patriarchy.
It shows that patriarchy, the male-dominated power structure that oppresses women, is so engrained in our society that it is impossible to begin to search for positive messages about women without hearing the echoes of those who champion oppression. Legal progress for equality is important, but this ad answers those who are too quick to assume the fight against sexism is nearly won.
The campaign is now using another product of the 21st century, Twitter, to continue the ad’s momentum. Champions of gender equality can take back the conversation by tweeting with the hashtag #womenshould.
Edited by SS
