MUMBAI: Last year, Manforce Condoms took the internet by storm with its campaign #ShutThePhoneUp. It was an extension of what the brand always stands for – safe sex. The campaign aimed at driving awareness about the risks associated with recording one’s private moments on the phone.
In 2017, the campaign video showed how losing a phone can be a nightmare for a newly-married couple. This year, the brand continued the conversation by talking about how deleted data can be retrieved and jeopardize everything.
The campaign’s first edition was driven and symbolized by the oath of putting a condom over the phone. It became a social movement that was supported by millions of Indians and became a topic of national debate. This year’s campaign execution caught fire right from the get-go. A blurred MMS of a couple making out was circulated among the masses with the communication, “this could have been you”, to reaffirm the possibilities of data retrieval and leakage. The audience were immediately awakened and understood the message with the video’s engagement crossing the 13M mark.
Furthermore, the teaser established the premise for this year’s oath, which saw an even bigger response. Several users chose to take the oath to #ShutThePhoneUp by covering their face with their hand that read “this could’ve been me”.
In addition to the oath, the brand with its initiative, facilitated the victims of voyeurism with a voice. They came forth and shared their experiences to warn couples from using their phones, while they are together.
In addition to spreading awareness, the goal of the campaign was to offer a solution to people who have already used their phone for clicking images and recording videos. Manforce Condoms curated a page with all the information essential to #ResetItRight on their official website. Cashify, an online re-commerce platform supported the campaign. They directed their ground-force to confirm with the sellers that the phone is completely formatted and encrypted, before they collected it. It was all done to ensure that no data remains on the phone, to avoid further consequences of the data falling into the wrong hands.
“People need to realize that apart from social networking, there is also a dark side to technology. Tools that are used to retrieve deleted data, can be used for unethical purposes, like retrieving compromising information. This information had to reach people. From circulating the MMS to encouraging people to take up the oath and then onto enabling them to #ResetItRight, we aimed at informing people that regardless of the safety tools, apps & mechanisms, their safety lies in their own hands and nowhere else. The center of it all was driving the main message of preventing people from shooting that MMS, and to #ShutThePhoneUp,” said Shradha Agarwal, COO & Co-Founder, Grapes Digital.
Speaking on the occasion, Rajeev Juneja, CEO, Mankind Pharma, said, “We always strive at bringing about a social change and drive awareness towards ‘safe sex’. But the sexual experience is no more limited to physical intimacy – we can all become victims of voyeurism in some form or the other. It must be understood that the only way to stay safe from voyeurism is by not recording videos or sharing risqué images at all. The campaign needs to reach as many people as it can and for that we request the people of the country to come out in support and take the pledge to #ShutThePhoneUp.”
Manforce Condoms, has once again been successful in highlighting the real issues and making people aware and more responsible with their campaign, #ShutThePhoneUp.
