Hit or miss: Brands marking International Womens Day

Real-time marketing for International Womens Day

International Women’s day is a time to praise the super humans that women prove to be over and over again. They prevail over hardships that men would otherwise be overwhelmed by. They give life and manifest themselves as an amazing source of compassion, care and progress.

Add to that the latest surfacing of the endless inequalities, aggressions and abuses they go through as part of an imperfect world. Thus, you have a very sensitive trending topic that the brands knew could bank on.  The common theme was gender equality.

Here are the more or less heartfelt statements that pushed some of the brands in the public eye.

Brand recognition of International Women’s Day

McDonalds similar to what MTV did, was to flip their M and turn it into a W. Cheap and easy to understand, it aligned to the momentary sentiment but that’s about it.

Johnny Walker changed the striding man into a striding woman, for the day and to celebrate International Women’s Month, for a limited edition bottle. For each sale of the Jane Walker sale, $1 would go to women’s organization.  It was admirable but some found it a bit condescending.

Mattel introduced 17 new dolls that represent women role models. In this way, the popular company turned its toys into educational material, personalities girls would look up to, such as Frida Kahlo, Amelia Earhart or Gabby Douglas. But we’re talking about products for profit, so the dolls are one-of-a-kind and can only pre-order on the brand’s site for $29.99. I don’t see how the general public, which means as many glittle girls as possible, can in this way have access to them. Not to mention the unrealistic image of women that the company has promoted for so many years. Unfortunately, a bunch of limited editions dolls won’t make up for that.

I liked the Design by Humans’ simple way of putting women artists on the forefront, with a homepage banner. You wouldn’t have guessed many of the designs were made by female artists, so this is a good occasion to educate yourself.

The same goes for Society6.