Hershey's celebrates 'her' and 'she' for International Women's Day

Yesterday was International Women’s Day. Companies across industries recognized employees and the greater mission of gender employment equality and opportunity. The day was also an opportunity for consumer-facing brands to create something tangible and visual around their products, although always a delicate line to tow.

One brand who I believe did it tastefully (sorry for the pun) was Hershey’s. The chocolate-making American icon’s name lends itself pretty nicely such an effort (“Her” “She”), and their brand team in Brazil played it through.

Hershey’s revealed “Her” and “She” chocolate bars with eye-catching and vibrant packaging created by and celebrating great women musicians, illustrators and other artists. Collectively, they helped make up the #HerSheGallery

The campaign strove to activate across the digital ecosystem, including QR codes to select singles, a film chronicling the effort and more. I like the fact that Hershey’s positioned the effort as “more than commemorative packaging,” but, rather, an “exhibition” and call-to-action for female artists to showcase their talents.

On its face, a simple and, dare I say obvious, PR activation. I would’ve loved to have seen this executed on an even larger (global) scale. Seems there would also be natural opportunities for sales and even engagement to benefit a relevant organization (or several). I could see this type of program drumming a lot of attention in the U.S., for example, if done well.

This is not to insinuate that there aren’t real operational considerations here, of course. However, I like how it offers Hershey’s an opportunity to freshen and modernize their image, while spreading positive messages, celebrating powerful women and giving artists an additional platform for exposure.

My only question would’ve been: why not bigger? Food for (future) thought.