Children Question Domestic Gender Roles in Essity's 'The Unfair Race'

Essity, a global hygiene and health company, has launched a campaign for the Zewa brand in Hungary to question gender roles when it comes to household hygiene tasks and the impact it has on family life and the future of children.

Zewa is an international brand with a range of products including toilet paper, household towels and tissues.

The campaign, created by Publicis London in partnership with Publicis Hungary, showcases an 'Unfair Race' featuring girls and boys. 

Research, conducted by Essity in Hungary, indicates that whilst 97% of people agreed that ‘The future of my children is influenced by the examples we as parents set at home', and 87% of people agreed that ‘It is important for me that my children grow up in a more equal family where home hygiene tasks are shared by all,’ today household hygiene tasks are split unevenly between men (31%) and women (69%).

'The Unfair Race' suggests the impact of this unequal division of household tasks and discusses with the boys and girls how they feel about it. As ever, their honesty highlights the issue and gets parents to think about the impact of the example they set at home.

Gabor Peter Kovacs, Global Brand Digital Manager of Essity, said: “We learned that these stereotypes are unquestioned not because parents don’t want to think about it, but rather because they are simply not aware of their stereotypical behaviours and the impact on their children at an early age. By collaborating with children and highlighting their perspective, we found a playful yet honest way to reveal these hidden stereotypes. We hope there will be a strong positive emotional reaction and that the campaign will help raise awareness in families around this important issue."

Dave Monk, Executive Creative Director of Publicis London, said “It’s been a brilliant creative challenge - a sensitive issue, with international collaboration and the ambition to make an impact. From this, we’ve created something that we’re truly proud of and we hope it will catch fire in Hungary and beyond. In this world we live in, it’s important that brands take a stand for what they believe in and find creative ways to talk about it without lecturing. We hope 'The Unfair Race' finds this balance and it resonates with the right people."

A campaign website hub hosts the long-format film with digital media driving traffic to the site. In addition, Hungarian influencers Joco Bacsi, Annamaria Tahi and David Szel will be leveraging the campaign to talk about the unequal split of home hygiene tasks in families in Hungary, including an appearance on the Hungarian breakfast TV show, Mokka, on November 16th. PR and social activity will further enhance the reach of the campaign, including a press event in Budapest on November 13th.