Bring to light the unheard & untold stories of acid attack survivors in India and restore their equal footing in society and celebrate a women's day like never before.
Current Situation
India has seen an increasing trend in acid attacks in the last 5 years. Over 350 acid attack survivors have registered in India in the year 2017, while the unregistered figures are expected to be manifolds more.
Introduced as a separate offense under the Indian Penal Code through Criminal (Amendment) Act, 2013, Section 326 B lays down the punishment for attempted acid throwing. In spite of this particular amendment, it failed to deter acid attackers and failed to show a significant dip in acid attacks.
Campaign Objective:
A victim of an acid attack has a difficult past and an uncertain future with society shunning them down, which unconsciously blocks their doors of revival. We aimed to create a movement which would help change this perception and redeem their lost recognition in the most glamorous and welcoming way.
Note: Most uses of acid were clinically substituted by other products in the last decade. Since there is no practical use of acid in present times, it's primarily used in heinous crimes. Hence, the nip the problem at the bud, #StopAcidSale was initiated.
This movement was strategically divided into 4 phases-
1) The macro picture
A fortnight before women's day 2018, we launched a digital survey to gauge the amount of information people at large had about the acid attack situation in the country. We also educated them about the Supreme Court's amendment, the government's efforts and unfortunately, the inability to curb the issue. The ignorance and lack of empathy seen in the results of the survey gave us goosebumps and this got us to kickstart the movement with #StopAcidSale.
2) Sharing their stories through the digital platforms and at the mall.
We brought to light, stories of a number of acid attack survivors, their tragic past and an uncertain future. This was conveyed through digital platforms like Facebook, Facebook Live, Twitter, Instagram, Instagram Live, Multiple Story formats, our official website and more.
Extraordinaari - 'Naari' quite literally translates to woman in the Hindi language. This quirky infusion of the word extraordinary and 'naari' to salute extraordinary women in our society, on occasion of Women's Day.
We flew down 10 Acid Attack victims as the guest of honour at the Women's Day celebrations of the mall and felicitated them in a grand ceremony.
Sharing stories of their endeavours for truth and freedom encouraged people to take part in this movement. We gave the internet a chance to have an AMA session with the acid attack survivors.
3) A physical encounter
After educating the audience and giving them a chance to interact with the survivors, we took the digital experience offline. A meet & greet gave people a chance, at last, to come face to face with the hard reality of the acid attack survivors.
This sentimental and positive response to our campaign brought us an opportunity to take our movement to the Bombay Times Fashion Week from the house of one of the biggest media conglomerates in South East Asia.
Here, the acid attack survivors got a chance to walk the ramp at India's one of the biggest fashion events.
This resulted to a thunderous standing ovation, thus, touching innumerable hearts on a national scale.
All this was curated and amplified by a rigorous and thorough digital campaign.
4) Rallying for the cause:
A phygital signature campaign was floated across touchpoints for people to show their support for the cause. We also created and floated job opportunities for acid attack survivors while urging other malls and brands at large to follow the same and put this ignored and unwanted strata of our community at equal footing with society at large.
What started as a humble initiative to create awareness amongst people, turned out to be an eye-opener to the masses.
• A distinct and clear thought leadership was established by Viviana Mall with this movement. We know that it is not enough to completely resolve a problem of this magnitude, but we raised one collective voice that echoed.
A post campaign survey showed a 45% increase in the general awareness about acid attacks in India.
• 3500+ influencers from all walks of life talked about this movement, provoking the masses to look up, take notice and understand the issue in depth. This helped us reach 10 Million+ lives online.
• This movement got picked up across national media with a Zero Dollar Investment. Among the prominent ones were NDTV India, Zee News, Bennett & Coleman News Network, The Quint and so on, thus resulting to earn media worth hundreds of thousands of Dollars.
While the above can be quantified and measured, what shall be cherished in our hearts forever is seeing the once teary eyed victims, now smile with gratitude and joy at the end of the campaign.
