Responses by Jorijn Harms, client partner, Bulletproof Amsterdam.
Background: The gender gap in the Netherlands is too big. Between 2008 and 2022, it has increased dramatically, dropping from 9th on the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report to 28th. We were shocked by the level of gender inequality in our country, which is generally seen as progressive, and asked ourselves: How could we use creativity to tackle this issue and promote positive action? We wanted to target all the people in Amsterdam—not just women—who agreed that the gender gap is inexcusable and hope to close the gap by 2030!
Design thinking: First, we had to make sure that the creative would attract attention and put the issue of the gender gap at the top of people’s agenda. We started with the idea of plastering over the canal street names with their female counterparts—for example, transforming Herengracht (“Gentleman’s Canal”) into Damesgracht (“Dame’s Canal”) and Prinsengracht (“Princes’ Canal”) into Prinsessengracht (“Princesses’ Canal”).
But, we also wanted to make a wider impact that would affect real change. That’s why we created the more ambitious and far-reaching Amsterdame campaign. As part of this, we identified three priority issues to focus on: the gender pay gap, the research gap and the democratic representation gap. With the help of top universities in Amsterdam, we organized a lecture and panel discussion for International Women’s Day, focusing on inspirational women of Amsterdam like Marieke Samallo and Zahra Runderkamp, who are already driving positive change and sharing solutions to close the gap.
Challenges: Definitely the timeframe. There were only seven weeks between the creation of our concept deck to the campaign hitting the streets! We had a lot of moving parts and collaborators, but by working closely and having such a clear focus, we were able to make it happen.
Favorite details: We love the interactive map on the website that highlights the streets we’ve “rebranded” alongside female-run businesses across the city, as well as the stories of our amazing Amsterdames!
New lessons: Definitely. We learned how to implement a full campaign ourselves, which was something new for us as we’re used to delivering brand creative to our clients. It had its challenges, but it was also great to experience having full creative control.
Overall, it was a really rewarding experience and brilliant to see everyone rallying behind the cause, from Bulletproof’s founders to the university students. Creativity has always been a powerful force to inspire change, and this project has really reinforced that for us!
Visual influences: The city itself was our main inspiration. We used iconic Amsterdam elements such as the city flag’s Saint Andrew’s Crosses—or “Andrea’s”—and the city council’s colors—red, white and blue—to represent a physical takeover, a seizing of control by the people that demonstrates how we will no longer stay quiet.
The contrasting typefaces we used recall historic protest placards, which we found particularly useful for stressing figures in statistics and building in a more emotional level to the campaign.
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