United Colors of Benetton urges men and women to be #UnitedByHalf

Women empowerment has become a pressing topic of discussion in society. Though it's a universal issue, the need to improve the social, economic, political, and legal status of women is particularly relevant in India. Men and women together should strive to change that.

Many brands in the past have rolled out campaigns addressing this issue while encouraging women to stand up for their rights. With International Women's Day (March 08) just around the corner, United Colors of Benetton has powerfully fetched this issue through its latest campaign -#UnitedByHalf.

With the campaign, which commenced on Valentine's day and concludes on Women's day, Benetton has strived to highlight that women deserve an equal share in education, career, family, and any other opportunity life offers. Men too, are part of the larger conversation and goal of being #UnitedByHalf.

The brand started the campaign with the launch of a video on digital platforms YouTube and Facebook. The underlying proposition of the one-minute video is that women and men are not better or worse halves but are equal halves, and both should stand united for the cause.

Besides digital, the campaign video is currently running on television as well, and the brand is planning to promote the campaign across different channels, including print, radio, cinema, and in malls. Interestingly, Bollywood actress Kalki Koechlin, who is no less than a poster girl for women's rights herself, also featured in an appealing creative for #UnitedByHalf.

The campaign strives to cover three causes - education for the girl child, unequal pay, and the balance of career and family. It urges visitors on its site to take a pledge by logging in with their social accounts (Facebook, Twitter and Google+), upon which, under the Project Nanhi Kali, underprivileged girl children will be provided quality education to help them become independent and self-reliant women. Hundreds of people have pledged and shared their views on these issues.

The campaign has received an overwhelming response from people on digital platforms. The success of the campaign and audience engagement has been quite visible, as per the statistics released by the brand. On Facebook, the campaign video has garnered more than 5.9 million views while it was shared over 17K times. On YouTube, the campaign video has clocked in 1,041,733+ views till now. Besides, the brand's social activity on Instagram in collaboration with the influencers, helped the campaign video reap 101,356+ views.

Brilliantly crafted, this campaign took an unconventional approach by talking about an issue like gender equality on Valentine's day - a day that has an equal significance for both men and women. Also, what makes it unique is the fact that it calls for women and men to unite as two equal halves.