Gulnar Rahimzade - Women Should

#WomenShould

Role: Motion Design

There are many stereotypes associated with this phrase, shared by both women and men on social media, referring to the so-called behavioral norms for women accepted in Azerbaijani society. As a result, these individuals create not only verbal but also real limitations that negatively impact the lives of millions of women in our country. To address this issue, Azercell, the leader in the local mobile market, launched the 'A Woman Should Be...' campaign, featuring successful female athletes, with the support of its partner, the National Olympic Committee of Azerbaijan.

Initially, one of the reasons we thought we should launch this campaign was the comment under Shahana Nazarova's - World and European champion among juniors - video on the National Olympic Committee's Facebook page.

Some stereotypes about how a woman should be still prevail in the popular consciousness in Azerbaijan. As a social experiment, we decided to promote the #WomenShouldBe hashtag with the help of opinion leaders sharing their positive views on why women are free to choose how to live. Shockingly, representatives from certain segments of society even objected to the hashtag. 1News.az, one of the highest-rated websites in Azerbaijan, also joined in by conducting a street interview about the trending hashtag. During the survey, some participants spoke disparagingly about women...

In contradiction to these disrespectful opinions about women's place in society, on International Women's Day, we presented our main video starring famous female athletes showing how strong women can be despite all the stereotypes in all the senses of this word.

For decades people put women into the box of gender stereotypes. Our purpose was to bring the opposite message, which stated that women should not be whoever they want them to be. Only she decides what to do with her life.

#WomenShouldBe campaign created massive public debate. TV commercial was shown on all the local channels, while the main key visuals were placed on many billboards of the city. It reached 3.8 million people! It also won two awards during RedJolbors 2020 - Central Asian Communications Festival.

Credits:

Clients:   The National Olympic Committee of Azerbaijan, Azercell
Agency:   Endorphin
Project Coordinator:   Orkhan Karimov
Project Manager:   Farhad Shabanov
Account Manager:   Rafiga Aziz
Creative Director:   Rasul Zaidov
Art Director:   Aykhan Safarli
Motion Designer:   Gulnar Rahimzade
Digital Manager:   Mushfig Shiraliyev
Social Media Manager:   Lamiya Khudiyeva
Photographer:   Toghrul Gurbanov
Director:   Emil Abdullayev
DoP:   Ruslan Agazade
Edit:   Asger Rahimov
Producer:   Rashad Karimli