How starring in an ad helped Vicks’ mom Gauri Sawant gain overnight stardom

• In a Pride Month special, we invited Vicks Mom Gauri Sawant and Ajay Vikram, CCO- Global Clients, Publicis Singapore for a #BTSwithInsider chat.
• Vikram walked us through the ideation process, execution and Sawant, on the other hand, shared her experience of becoming a star overnight.

Since it is June, the most colourful month of the year, for last week’s episode of BTSwithInsiders, we decided to look back at an advertisement that changed the definition of motherhood in India and made us relook at our ideologies -- Vick’s Touch of Care.

Normalising trans motherhood in India, Vicks initiated a conversation everyone else was afraid to have. It highlighted how motherhood goes beyond biological ties with transgender activist Gauri Sawant, who also runs an NGO called Sakhi Char Chowghi. It showcased her real life story of bringing up a girl. Conceptualised by Publicis Singapore for Procter & Gamble, the video shows how Gayatri, at the age of 6, loses her biological mother, a sex worker, to HIV AIDS. It ends with Gayatri vowing to become a lawyer so that she can fight for equal human rights and build an equal environment for her foster mother.

Ajay Vikram, CCO- Global Clients, Publicis Singapore walked us through the ideation process, execution and Sawant, on the other hand Vicks Mom Gauri Sawant shared her experience of becoming a star overnight.

Here is what they said: