The relationship between business, brands, and people are changing, especially in the advent of purpose-driven campaigns or advocacies that seek societal change. That’s exactly what “The Tampon Book: A Book Against Tax Discrimination” by Scholz & Friends was able to address for The Female Company, earning it its PR Lions Grand Prix Award in this year’s Cannes Lions Festival.
The Grand Prix in PR at #CannesLions 2019 goes to… @scholzfriends for The Tampon Book: A Book Against Tax Discrimination, with @female_company!
Congratulations to everyone back in Germany who worked on this campaign! pic.twitter.com/PobjKFPBxA
Sponsor— LIONS | The Home of Creativity (@Cannes_Lions) June 19, 2019
The campaign was a protest against highly taxed feminine hygiene products that were classified as luxury items under tax systems in the U.S. and countries under the E.U., whereas actual luxury items like oil paintings, caviar, and truffles were all taxed way lower. The advocacy then begged the question — is women’s menstruation a luxury?
While governments continue to debate on lowering these taxes, the initiative called the Tampon Book was then created to circumvent tax laws and sell tampons at a lower price. By encasing tampons into a book, they can then be taxed at a lower, far more acceptable rate.
With a great underlying message driving the initiative, various media soon picked the story up, causing numerous ripples of change, taking the world a step closer to equality and women empowerment.
Other campaigns that got gold include:
For the full list of PR Lions Winners, click and download here.
Main Image from Cannes Lions 2019 via Twitter.
