Singapore – A short film from non-profit labor group Transient Workers Count Too and Ogilvy & Mather Singapore reminds Singaporeans about the right of domestic helpers to have weekly day offs by asking moms a provocative question – How well do you really know your kids?
Mothers and their domestics helpers were quizzed in the “Mums & Maids” two-minute spot about intimate details about the children they take care off.
With more time with their kids at home, the maids unsurprisingly aced the questions while their mothers fumbled and guessed what should have been facts they know by heart.
The campaign was created in the lead up to Labor Day on May 1st to show that what may help parents deepen their bond with their child is also a fundamental worker’s right.
“We focused the creative strategy on tapping into modern parents’ fear of missing out. By showing how parents are losing out on their relationship with their children by always requiring their domestic worker to be around, we reposition their day off as an opportunity to enhance family bonding,” Noorashikin Abdul Rahman, President of TWC2.
Weekly day offs for domestic helpers has been mandated by law since January 2013, but to date, around 40% of Singapore’s 222,500 domestic workers are overworked, according to the Humanitarian Organization for Migration Economics (HOME).Majority of them are from the Philippines, Indonesia and Myanmar.
Shame campaign?
“The film is deliberately confronting because we need it to be effective. It must actually change behavior,” said Eugene Cheong, Chief Creative Officer of Ogilvy & Mather Asia Pacific.
While well-meaning, the campaign received flak from netizens over questions in its execution. Singapore blogger and journalist Kirsten Han, who writes for Yahoo, Al Jazeera and the Guardian, was particularly irked, posting on Twitter: “@Ogilvy, is shaming women really the key to FDW labour rights? And @TWC2, why did you endorse it?!”
Others joined Han in the debate. Among them is Coconuts Manila who tweeted: “Not knowing your child’s bkfast doesn’t make you a bad parent. Sorry for the rant @kixes, video is upsetting.”
Another tweet from Coconuts Manila: “FDWs should get days off because it is their right, not because a busy working mom was made paranoid by an insensitive video.”
Ogilvy Asia promptly defended the campaign, responding to Han by tweeting “We hear you. It’s not everyones cup of tea. But the most important thing here is the end goal – workers getting their legal day off.”
