Here’s a creative idea rooted in actual consumer behaviour. And interestingly enough also triggering an action to reinforce the point it makes. People use Google Search for information ranging from product reviews to general knowledge and the auto complete feature comes handy in most cases. Type in ‘I hate’ and Google automatically suggests phrases (‘I hate Apple’ is auto-completed with ‘I hate Apple products’, ‘I hate Apple fanboys’ etc. Such auto complete phrases are meant to reflect popular opinion or predict what the user is searching for.
In that context, innocuous phrases like “Women shouldn’t”, “women cannot” and “women need to” throw up auto complete phrases which are not only shocking but re-affirm the gender bias that exists across the world. A campaign created or UN Women by Christopher Hunt, head of art for Ogilvy & Mather Dubai dramatizes this very well. According to him:
The adverts show the results of genuine searches, highlighting popular opinions across the world wide web.
When I tried it out with the phrase, “women shouldn’t” it showed up these results in India.
It confirms popular opinion, right? And raises awareness about issue at hand – and because it involves an action from the reader’s part, the idea is embedded powerfully.
