Unveils a vox pop style campaign to address the prevalence of unintentional biases

On the occasion of International Women’s Day, Design Cafe, a home interior solutions brand and the fastest growing radio network, Fever FM today, launched an awareness campaign to bring attention to the concept of unconscious bias and understand how it impacts individuals towards creating an inclusive gender ecosystem. While the campaign saw some stereotypical responses for common biases, it also witnessed many progressive thoughts indicating how Indians are on the path of breaking biases.

Unconscious or implicit biases are unconscious associations, behavior, or belief towards an individual, situation, or group. Due to these biases, a group of similar individuals (eg. women) is stereotyped with certain characteristics and qualities. However, these biases are not intentional and triggered at a subconscious level, which cannot be controlled unless there is an intended awareness.

To achieve this, Fever FM’s celebrated RJs, Sindhu and Prithvi did a vox pox at Design Cafe’s Experience Centers in Chennai and Bangalore, where customers, across demographics, were questioned about their opinion on popular stereotypes. That included, parenting based on gender, men moving cities for women, and women making the first move in relationships

Key Questions asked:

1. What do you know about unconscious bias?

2. Who makes the morning tea?

3. Are you ok if your wife or future partner earns more than you?

4. If you have or had a son, what would be your reaction if he paints his nails?

5. Would you make the first move on a date or in a relationship?

6. What would be our reaction if your wife doesn’t wax or visit the parlor?

7. If your wife got a better job in another city, would you give up your job and move with her?

8. Who handles the household finances? Who takes all the important financial-related decisions?

The three-minute video revealed that more than 95% of the respondents were not aware of unconscious bias and heard about it for the first time. The video also suggested that individuals of both genders are conditioned with similar gender stereotyping, indicating that both men and women project women stereotypes. On a positive note, all the women interviewed made financial decisions for themselves and their families, breaking the bias of men being the financial authority.

Speaking about the campaign Gita Ramanan, Co-Founder and CEO said,” In my own experience, there were definitive ideas while growing up in terms of young women starting a business. While that narrative has changed over the years, we are still skeptical about women being in leadership roles or men being in charge of the house. All this stems from the very fact that we have built a social structure that is based on one too many stereotypes. While we are fighting hard to break the visible biases, we are yet to break free from the ones that are embedded within us. Through this campaign, we hope to inspire individuals to deep dive into this journey. Partnering with Fever FM has elevated this campaign by helping it reach a wider audience and together we are excited to witness the conversations around unconscious bias.”

The campaign will be hosted across Design Cafe’s Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube pages, in addition to Fever FM social media channels. The campaign will run through the Women’s Day week, to encourage audience participation in this conversation.