The food industry and Women’s Day: can that relationship work?

After International Women’s Day, the question remains: how can the food industry position itself without making a ridiculous role? Let’s rethink food industry and women’s day relationship!

The efforts of brands to take advantage of Women’s Day to promote themselves are week.

Why does it happen?

I will take here my speaking place as a woman and as an integral part of this industry, as well as consumer of these products, for a brief analysis of what was seen on March 8th.

It is worth remembering, this date is not a celebration, but rather the claim of equal rights for women and note that equality has not yet been achieved.

Whiskey brand Johnnie Walker has launched a feminine version of the iconic logo, an attempt to attract more women to enjoy the world’s best-selling whiskey and recognize a broader push for gender equality.

Instead of the traditional man in a top hat – a woman, Jane Walker. Diageo, a manufacturing company, also seeks to increase female representation internally. His advice will be 50% made up of women still in April of this year.

For every bottle produced, Diageo is donating one dollar to organizations that promote women’s cause.

The North American fast-food chain KFC for the first time featured a woman like Colonel Sanders. Country singer Reba McEntire appeared as Colonel Sanders in her latest marketing campaign.

Pepsico has invested in the creation of a line of snacks, limited edition, especially for the date. Stacy Pita Chips aims to support women and celebrate the theme of gender equality. The company will donate $ 25,000 to the Step Up charity, which supports educational opportunities for girls in low-income communities and a further $ 75,000 for a range of women’s initiatives by the end of 2018.

It is interesting to note that the very choice of the brand for this limited edition was not by chance, Stacy, the founder of the brand that was sold to Pepsico has an inspiring story that you can read here.

At last we arrive at Mc Donalds, the double-dose gaffe in Brazil and the US, shows that even a company of this size still needs to evolve a lot.

In the US they turned the M and its logo to form a W in honor of women.

In Brazil it was worse, they put only women working in the stores, which meant that on their day, those who had the day off from work were men. The company still tried to explain itself, but the amendment came out worse than they could expect: in 20 stores there were only women who were relocated from their home stores to complete the female cadre while in the other stores there were only men.

“Women strengh – In honour of International Women’s Day, today we are operating with a 100% female team in this restaurant”.

But what, after all, did women expect on International Women’s Day?

We expect equality, we hope not to earn lower wages than our fellow men in the same position, we hope not to be deferred in a job promotion because we have children.

Brands can benefit from the date to pass on a message and still profit from it (yes, capitalist logic prevails here, but let’s face it, companies are companies and their existence is due to profit), but they need to go beyond that and make sure they do the homework, that is, that their own structure is conducive to the development of women’s careers. We want to see women in leadership positions, on the boards of companies and on the board of advertising agencies.

Queremos ver marcas que invistam na igualdade o ano inteiro. Se você leitor possui uma empresa, faça esse exame de consciência e em vez de distribuir rosas para suas funcionárias, distribua salários equiparados aos dos homens!

It is a nice surprise to see special packaging and changes in the logos of the products, but more importantly than this is the end of the pink tax (if you do not know what is pink tax, read here).

We want to see brands that invest in equality the whole year. If you own a business, take this examination of conscience and, instead of distributing roses, distribute salaries equal to those of your male employees!

References: Bloomberg, Geek Publicitário, CNBC, Scotch Whisky, Foodbev, Veja SP, Exame