A campaign featuring transgender pop band ‘from India has won the second annual ‘Glass’ Award at Cannes Lions, for its work to promote gender equality.
Glass: The Lion for Change is devised in partnership with Lean In.Org and launched last year, were also announced.
The award recognises work that positively impacts ingrained gender inequality, imbalance or injustice, and this year the Grand Prix was claimed by “6 Pack Band” for Hindustan Unilever, from Mindshare, Mumbai.
In India, transgender people have some legal protections but many are still ostracized from society and face tough challenges.
The ad campaign for the Brooke Bond Red Label Tea, which promotes itself as the brand that brings people together, used India’s rich culture of music and dance to help encourage acceptance of transgender people.
The band quickly became a hit in and outside of India. A music video of the 6 Pack Band singing with Indian singer Sonu Nigam has had 3.5 million views on YouTube since January. The band’s debut single, “Hum Hain Happy” – a cover of Pharrell Williams’ “Happy”, has had 1.9 million this year.
Jury President, Madeline di Nonno, described the work as global, inclusive and impactful. “Gender equality is not only a women’s issue. It includes all aspects of marginalisation, discrimination and unconscious bias faced by all genders.”