Exposing the hidden behavioural codes of gender inequality

WPP agencies Superunion, Kantar Added Value, Kantar Futures, Wavemaker and VML collaborated with global children’s charity Theirworld on an ambitious campaign to expose the hidden values and behavioural codes of gender inequality.

Inspired by the embedded social values that shape our lives every day, #RewritingTheCode focuses on raising awareness of the attitudes that prevent girls and women across the world from achieving their full potential.

Encouraging leaders from all sectors to change negative attitudes and behaviours that perpetuate gender stereotypes, it is part of WPP’s commitment to Common Ground, the unprecedented industry-wide pledge to support the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Using the lexicon and symbols of digital codes, the campaign encourages people to consider the cultural codes that hide beneath the surface which hold back women and girls.

The campaign is a development of a previous Theirworld initiative, which aimed to give girls access to technology to increase their learning opportunities. Theirworld currently facilitates digital Code Clubs in Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Tanzania and Lebanon, providing girls with coding and programming skills to support their formal schooling.

The campaign’s name and idea of using the embed symbol to change cultural code were developed by D&AD New Blood winner Niamh Deehan who was briefed by Theirworld and WPP to devise a campaign to tackle barriers to girls’ education.

#RewritingTheCode is just one of a number of initiatives that has been developed across WPP globally since the launch of Common Ground at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in 2016. WPP is focused on Goal 5: ensuring gender equality and empowering women and girls everywhere.

Find out more about Common Ground and WPP’s work on gender equality