IKEA Pink shirt day
Category 4. CSR
For years there is a smoldering problem in Bulgarian schools with bullying among students. According to UNICEF Bulgaria’s latest research – every third child is a victim of physical or verbal abuse, mainly by its peers. Swedish brand IKEA has always been concerned with the environment in which children grow and develop and continuously implements new initiatives in support of children’s welfare.
That is why we in Paragraph 42, a preferred partner of Ketchum in Bulgaria, joined all forces to create a real-time and mass campaign for IKEA to prevent school violence. We had an innovative approach, building our narrative around the global initiative Pink shirt day. It started in 2007 in Canada after a nine-year-old child was subjected to violence by some of its peers for wearing a pink shirt. By the end of that week, most of the students in the school wore pink shirts to show support. And although Pink shirt day started at schools across the globe, we wanted to take it to a higher level – to engage other businesses, celebrities, the general public, media. We reached a total of 2,75M people.
For the second consecutive year, IKEA is part of this initiative, but for the first time, the company uses as a means of expression some of its best-selling products. So, on anti-bullying day, IKEA put on pink. But not only – the brand “infected” media, influencers and the general public to do the same. Through this we sparked discussion and on February 22nd we brought the issue to light.