FMCG giant P&G has launched a new #RealDeal campaign with ecommerce platform Lazada to raise awareness around imposter syndrome, especially among women. Statistics from a 2019 study revealed that one out of two women experience imposter syndrome on a daily or regular basis, attesting to the fact that women often doubt their own abilities through feelings of fraud and belittlement of their own experiences and expertise.
In the campaign film, Singaporean entrepreneur Yeo Wan Qing, founder of social enterprise Hatch, detailed how she overcame imposter syndrome by being open to those around her about the struggles she was facing.
In the video, Yeo, who built a company from the ground-up at age 22, felt like she couldn't celebrate her success because she "felt like a fraud" calling herself a co-founder.
It's a great topic to be tackling given its wide-reaching impact, but the campaign or film failed to address the root of the problem—perhaps our patriarchal structures or unbalanced power dynamics in the workplace. It also failed to provide steps towards getting people to talk about imposter syndrome. Luckily for Yeo, she leaned on her colleagues for support, but that isn't always an option for all women.
On top of that, Lazada's involvement in the campaign entailed providing "a wide range of exclusive offers on P&G products such as Olay, Pantene and Oral-B celebrating female shoppers". This appears like the platform is merely trying to capitalise on an important gender-based struggle by trying to push more products. Both P&G and Lazada can surely do better.
Click here to subscribe to the FREE Asia PR & comms bulletin to receive dedicated news, features and comment from the region straight to your inbox. Make sure you register for the site to access more than one story per month.
To submit a news, comment, case study or analysis idea for the Asia bulletin, email Surekha.Ragavan@haymarket.asia
