#IGiveADayOff asks people to pledge for domestic workers

Client: TWC2 (Transient Workers Count Too)

Agency: Ogilvy & Mather Singapore 

Market: Singapore

Name of campaign: #IGiveADayOff

Campaign scope: Online

Background: One in five households in Singapore employs a domestic worker. A problem arises when employers do not allow these workers to take a rest day each week or informally ‘buy out’ their legally required day off by promising them payment in-lieu.

With the majority of Singapore’s domestic workers being far away from their families in the Philippines, Indonesia and Myanmar, working endlessly with no breaks for personal time or rest often leads to homesickness and mental health problems such as depression.

In the run up to International Worker’s Day, or Labour Day, on May 1, Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2), a non-profit organization dedicated to improving conditions for low-wage migrant workers, has partnered with Ogilvy & Mather to launch a film and behavior-change campaign that calls attention to the plight of domestic workers or ‘maids’ that work for months or years on end with no rest days

Press release quotes: 

Eugene Cheong, chief creative officer, Ogilvy & Mather Asia Pacific: “The film is deliberately confronting because we need it to be effective. It must actually change behavior. So 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,” Cheong added.

Noorashikin Abdul Rahman, president of TWC: “O&M has made a provocative video that will arouse debate. We at TWC2 hope it will contribute to a constructive re-examination of employers’ relationship with their domestic workers.”

Campaign Asia Pacific's comments: We love the simplicity of the campaign’s landing page and the ease with which you can make a pledge. The UX, call-to-action and social plugins are as they should be. The video is similarly direct and lean, and the use of contrast in both the narrative and visuals works well. Having a rising, introspective synthesiser as the score is always a kind of arrow to the heart as well. It will be interesting to see how this campaign trends online and makes an impact.