Using comedy to get some very important issues across

 March 08, 2018

Jungle Creations, the most viewed company on Facebook, collaborated with International Women’s Day (IWD) and Women for Women International to help promote gender equality.

Throughout the year Jungle Creations puts its creative minds and hugely popular social channels to work tackling worldwide, national and local issues. Every six months the company votes on a cause they want to champion and this January gender equality was selected to mark the centenary of women’s suffrage in the UK and to highlight how much more there is still left to achieve.

Last year in 2018, to help champion the IWD message “Press For Progress”, Jungle Creations wanted to highlight some of the inequalities and unique challenges that women still face today. After speaking with women about their personal experiences and researching statistics in key problem areas Jungle Creations created an original video for distribution on its flagship channel ‘VT’.

Watch last year's brilliant International Women's Day viral video

Challenging stereotypes and bias can be tough, yet essential

Employing a gender role reversal to help viewers reflect on and re-evaluate the discrimination that some women face, the video followed a sexist female boss and the men on the receiving end of her biased attitude including incidents of sexual harassment and their struggle to get a pay rise equivalent to that of their female counterparts. Scenes were accompanied by text overlay highlighting key facts and statistics, for example, the tampon tax that still classifies sanitary products as ‘luxury items’ and the fact that over a third of countries do not have regulations preventing sexual harassment in the workplace.

By reversing the genders, Jungle Creations hoped to offer some food for thought in a humorous way, that encouraged audiences to reexamine these incidents of sexism, that are often normalised but which adversely affect women in many workplaces around the world. There was also a call to action that encourages viewers to #PressforProgress by clicking through to the IWD website to pledge to take action such as ‘maintaining a gender parity mindset’ and ‘challenging gender stereotypes and bias’.

Jungle Creations also partnered with Women For Women International, a not-for- profit organisation dedicated to helping women survivors of war rebuild their lives, which also educates and encourages men to support women’s rights and female empowerment. To help promote its campaign ‘Message to My Sister’, Jungle Creations has published a ‘Spotlight’ video using Women For Women International’s existing footage and combined it with informative copy, which explains how the organisation helps women take control of their own futures. At the end of the video Jungle Creations’ audience is directed to visit Women For Women International’s portal, where they can send their own #MessageToMySister and sign up to be kept up to date with the charity’s latest projects.

Alongside this video, Jungle Creations has also created original videos for its channels; Brush, Twisted, Nailed It and Kidspiration helping to promote Women for Women International and its #MessageToMySister portal. One of these videos sees women from the Jungle Creations team transformed into prominent women from history including Emmeline Pankhurst, Michelle Obama and Malala Yousafzai. Jungle Creations’ social team has also completed social media workshops for the charity to aid them in their strategy.

Committed to encouraging progress towards an equal society

Jungle Creations said: “At Jungle Creations we believe gender equality is everyone’s business and we’re committed to encouraging progress towards an equal society. International Women’s Day is a fantastic opportunity for women and men to reflect on the amazing progress we’ve made whilst also thinking about how we can continue to work together towards a more inclusive and balanced future. We’re also proud to partner with Women For Women International and use our resources to assist in raising awareness of the amazing work they do, helping women survivors of war to rebuild their lives.”

Glenda Slingsby, Partnerships Director for International Women's Day, said: "Video is such a powerful medium for raising awareness, challenging mindsets and influencing behaviour - and when humour is introduced, complex issues can be tactfully explored and challenged. The International Women's Day campaign theme of #PressforProgress calls on groups to question behaviours and take tangible action to forge greater equality for women. In response, Jungle Creation's impressive expertise, social leadership and clever creativity are igniting worldwide attention on equality issues. I believe hearts and minds will most certainly be broadened as a direct result of the International Women's Day video."

Shivonne Graham, Director of Fundraising and Marketing, Women for Women International (UK) commented: “Sharing the real-life stories of women in war and conflict-affected countries is critically important - it’s one of the reasons Women for Women International exists. It is so important to shine a light on these women’s lives, what they have endured, the violence and atrocities they have experienced and witnessed and crucially how they never give up, they never lose their hope and how critical they are to rebuilding communities and societies and creating a more peaceful future. This is why I am so grateful to our partners at Jungle Creations. Their creativity, their innovation, and their generosity with their talent and time, is astounding - they are making a world of difference this International Women’s Day and we couldn’t be more proud and thankful to be their partner.” 

Jungle Creations has amassed over 50 million followers across its network of social channels, which generate up to 5.5 billion views a month. Its Purpose department was founded in 2017 to help utilise this following for the greater good. Last year the company focused on mental health, signing the Time To Change Mental Health Pledge to help combat the stigma surrounding mental health issues and partnering with Young Minds. This year the focus is on gender equality with the company not only promoting the message externally but internally too, introducing an increased paid maternity leave and including an equal paid paternity leave, that is meant to help shift the duty of care from the mother and create an equal partnership. In addition, the company also launched 'Jungle Talks’, with the inaugural event celebrating women in industry and led by female speakers, who discuss personal experiences and journeys to success. 

Watch it now !!

You can watch this awesome viral video with impact by clicking HERE.