Reebok India shows how bruises can be good through a social experiment

Isobar, the digital agency from Dentsu Aegis Network that handles the digital solutions for Reebok India, released a thought-provoking campaign – #BruisesCanBeGood – on International Women’s Day. Launched with a social experiment, it makes a compelling statement on societal insights. 

According to the National Family Health Survey (NHFS-4), every third woman in India, since the age of 15, has faced domestic violence of various forms. Making a strong assessment, #BruisesCanBeGood brings to light the harsh reality and the prevalent mindset of the society by involving real audience. By highlighting the prevalence, the campaign aims to establish the need for self-defence education from a young age. Featuring a real combat artist as a protagonist, the social experiment further underlines the brand’s overarching communication for women – #FitToFight. 

The mission of the campaign is to make self-defence classes a mandatory part of the curricula in schools and colleges. To achieve this, the brand has also written a petition on Change.org urging the Government of India to bring in the necessary reforms. To sign the petition, one can visit www.bruisescanbegood.com. 

Click the link below to view the social experiment:
https://youtu.be/-Qf2CdoElcc

Elaborating on the campaign, Silvia Tallon, Senior Marketing Director, Reebok India, said, “Our idea behind ‘Bruises Can Be Good’ was to showcase the skewed lens with which our society views bruises and women. The ingrained perceptions of bruises being violence inflicted, shadow the inner strength of the woman and allows us to undermine them. Since combat training is in our brand gene, Reebok honours these bruises as a mark of physical strength and mental toughness that can face any challenge. On International Women’s Day, we salute women who beat the odds and are ‘fit to fight’ physically, mentally and socially.” 

Commenting on the campaign, Gopa Kumar, Executive Vice President, Isobar India, said, “‘Bruises Can Be Good’ is a powerful thought that focuses on how imperative it has become in today’s times to teach self-defence. For Women’s Day, we wanted to do a campaign that actually leads to a positive change and hence, the petition. The campaign is also in line with Reebok’s ‘Fit To Fight’ proposition and takes it forward beautifully.” 

“A crime against a woman is committed every three minutes in India. We felt that just another story on Women's Day is not what the nation needs; there is a desire to bring about substantial change and show the real picture, and this social experiment sets out to do that by highlighting how prevalent violence against women is. We hope that impactful moment of realisation will reach people from all walks of life; and I really urge people to sign the petition to make self-defence education mandatory for female students and show the world that #BruisesCanBeGood,” said Anish Varghese, National Creative Director, Isobar India. 

Campaign Credits: 

National Creative Director: Anish Varghese

Group Creative Director: Anadi Sah

Associate Creative Director (Copy): Vibhor Yadav

Associate Creative Director (Art): Amit Singh

Group Head (Copy): Kritica Pareek

Senior Creative Producer & Director: Taj Ali Naqvi

Senior Editor: SK Parwej Alam

Senior Manager, Client Servicing: Nakul Sagar

Social Media: Aakriti Sinha (Associate Director), Juhi Jain (Assistant Manager)

Search & Media: Ashish Kumar (Associate Director), Kshitiz Kumar (Group Head), Manish Rana (Assistant Manager)

Production House: River Bank Films

Producer: Yogesh Singh

Co-Producer: Adil Aziz

Director: Nisrin Aziz