A recent ad by dishwashing liquid brand Vim from Hindustan Unilever left the internet frothing at the mouth. The creative was for the brand's dubious Vim Black product, supposedly targeted at men, which left netizens in disbelief due to its sheer cheekiness.
"Probably the world's first dishwashing liquid for men," read the copy accompanying the ad, which enticed men with bragging rights after performing the simple task of washing dishes.
There was also a link to the product on HUL's ecomm page, but it was supposedly sold out. Unlike its regular counterpart, the "manly" version of the product was enclosed in a black bottle complete with a set of instructions to use the liquid.
The company also released a spot with Milind Soman, schooling a "gym bro" bragging about doing dishes.
The initial impression of the ad left the internet confused, with one half claiming that it was a case of "woke washing" gone wrong and others saying that it was obvious satire.
"Seriously, Hindustan Unilever? This is not an April 1 joke launched way too early in December? A pre-cursor to a new campaign about gender bias in doing the dishes?" wrote communications and strategy consultant Karthik Srinivasan on LinkedIn.
"A topic that everyone has a point of view on… just saying. Can’t remember the last time this happened for dishwashing," replied Namita Liz Koshy.
"God forbid a man used the female vim and transformed into a woman. Made it black to see better?!" read another comment.
"It’s about evoking the sense of pride in doing things. Also dopamine when you end up doing a job well irrespective of who is seeing you do it. If men can take pride in changing a bulb, they can surely take pride in making a greasy utensil squeaky clean ( need elbow grease for that). And as marketing professionals, we can definitely bring about this change in perspective no?" wrote one.
"But hasn’t Vim been harping on changing perspective on gender roles for sometime now? Even the arranged marriage film spoke about “soch badlo”. At some level this new iteration carries that journey forward. It’s a courageous move by a Unilever brand to get audiences to sit up and listen. The outrage of netizens on the gender bias at home is exactly what they are trying to make you wake up and notice!" said another.
Reminiscent of the reaction to AU Bank's ad on gender role reversal, Twitter users were far from sold with some users also calling for a boycott.
Thanks for spreading gender hate. You just lost another customer.#vimblack #completeboycott#MensRightsAreHumanRights https://t.co/a32FXihpcJ
— Bikramajit Mallick (@bikramajit11) December 11, 2022
Wth is this black vim gel?how does that even make a difference in washing dishes?the fact that the company and ad makers are sexualizing a chore and making a product to promote "equality" is insane..also sexualizing colours #vimblack
— Huhrsh/Trhaash (@Harsh_Halankar) December 11, 2022
What is this cringe product & ad targeting men for #vimblack by @HUL_News ? What is different in this product from usual product? Why do they need to have different product if men were to do their dishes? Heights of stupidity! pic.twitter.com/2daJvvZe04
— Abhishek Gupta (@abhishek6801) December 11, 2022
It’s useless marketing strategy by #vimblack
— حثنين حاشيم علي قان (@HasnainHashim) December 11, 2022
@Unilever has made an Ad campaign with a fake product launch.
— Bharath Vipin (@bharathv27) December 11, 2022
This seemed like a campaign to encourage men to wash dishes. It caught us off guard with its unique marketing strategy.
Negative publicity gets more reach and gets the message across#unilever #Vim #vimblack pic.twitter.com/w86hmtrrdA
Vim eventually decided to come clean and confessed that the whole thing was a joke, aiming to stir a discussion on gender and household chores.
The brand had earlier broached the subject of marital partnership in its pandemic ad with Virendra Sehwag where he was seen washing dishes.
The over-the-top tone of the ad was an obvious giveaway that it was meant to be a satire. The cliched "black means masculine" product design was another.
However, given instances of brands turning increasingly woke, it's no surprise that people were confused.
In its press release, HUL said: "The key message being driven is that men need a change of perspective, not a specialised product to get them to own chores at home."
Commenting on the launch of the campaign, Deepak Subramanian, Executive Director & VP – Home Care, South Asia said, “We have always believed in empowering women and breaking the gender stereotypes that come along with household chores. Dishwashing in India as a chore is traditionally seen as a woman’s responsibility and has been distributed unevenly between family members. The lockdowns enforced a unique behaviour shift, where the men came to the sink and social media went abuzz with men at the sink. The aim of this campaign is to rekindle a perspective change in a non-preachy, quirky way so that chores at home can truly become democratised.”
Speaking about the idea and the campaign rationale, Prateek Bhardwaj, CCO - Lowe Lintas further explained, “On occasion, when men do household chores, they consider their contribution a favour rather than their responsibility. We wanted to change the narrative and encourage men to take ownership of their chores. Rather than approach this head on, we took a subversive approach to tell men that they too, belong equally at the sink."
On the scale and size of the campaign, Ajay Mehta, Senior Vice President Mindshare commented “With the brand taking such a bold step, the campaign needed an interesting medium to land the message effectively. Therefore, MTV was the perfect partner to bring alive the idea, with Milind Soman as the face. Even the short videos added just the right amount of sarcasm and quirk to the mix.
We knew there had to be more to this campaign to create the dent we aspired to. So, to break the stereotypes we got a male voice to give quirky & interesting tips to men on ‘all things dishwashing’. The idea was brought to life in Milind's voice on Alexa and Google Assistant. Everyday reminders for men to do the dishes were created in the form of quirky fridge magnets and a calendar to ensure the conversation stays alive in the minds of the audience outside social media.”