MASALA PODCAST
The campaign we're not supposed to talk about
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In South Asian culture, many things are taboo. Having a boyfriend. Or a girlfriend. Being gay. Being trans. Having a period. Getting divorced... But lots of women have no one, and nowhere, to discuss these taboos. Keeping issues to themselves can cause serious mental health issues. But it’s not just about mental health, these issues can be fatal.
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“My aunty said that me being gay was disrespecting the whole family, and that I should be disowned and possibly beheaded – that was her resolution to me being gay, for disrespecting the family and the lineage.”
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So what’s the answer? We teamed up with Sangeeta Pillai, the creator of South Asian feminist Masala Podcast. Instead of the usual ad campaign, we started with real podcast listeners, and invited them to start talking, each one starring in their own piece, tackling their own particular issue.
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And it worked. The floodgates opened. We had people discussing their issues and taking to social media. So instead of keeping quiet about taboos, they shouted about them, loud and clear, taking away the shame, the stigma, the anxiety for thousands of womxn, and bringing about a change in sentiment. And a change in the way people feel, is bringing about a real change in the way they live. ​Now, finally, womxn are talking, and lives are changing.
Nice cherry on the cake - the campaign won a DMA award for copywriting.
For South Asian Heritage month, we also launched a social campaign to reframe the shameful slurs often used against South Asian women, offering alternative definitions of words – like ‘besharam’ meaning ‘shameless woman’ redefined as ‘a woman brave enough to live her own life’’. It was time for women to take back the words that had so often been used against them.
