India — Stabilo Boss and DDB continue their highly-awarded ‘Highlight the Remarkable’ campaign by featuring one of their own – DDB’s first copy chief Phyllis Robinson whose legacy and trailblazing spirit lives through employees everywhere today.
The campaign tells the story of Phyllis Robinson, a remarkable woman who pioneered a number of things, not only for women but for the creative advertising revolution that she helped ignite in the 1940s. Being one of the founding employees of Doyle Dane Bernbach back in 1949, the agency’s first copy chief and the first female copy chief in the United States, her ideas changed the creative industry forever.
Another such story of Robinson’s triumph is her strength during a time when men dominated the industry. While DDB founder Bill Bernbach is often credited for sparking the creative revolution, it was Robinson whose influence and contributions created DDB’s iconic works in Orbach’s, Volkswagen and Polaroid.
This year’s International Women’s Day, Stabilo Boss and DDB rightfully gives Phyllis Robinson her flowers and commemorate her spirit by continuing to ignite the empowerment of women in the workforce and their trailblazing contribution.
Roisin Rooney, chief people officer of DDB Global, said, “We’ve all heard the phrase, “Behind every great man is a great woman.” Throughout history, women have been upstaged, their actions and successes overshadowed by the men that surround them. We’re proud to partner with Stabilo Boss, using the campaign concept created by DDB Group Germany, to highlight further Phyllis’ impact on not only DDB but the advertising industry today.”
Vanaja Pillai, the project lead of the Phyllis India Project from DDB Mudra Group, says that what better way to celebrate Phyllis and her work than to create an environment that instils her spirit and her fearlessness on the ground? Pillai adds that it has been an exhilarating journey for us in India as we saw the creation and execution of the Phyllis India Project in the last two years.
“We have had a good representation of women in advertising for over a decade now, but that hasn’t translated to an equal representation in leadership. Inspired by icons like Phyllis Robinson, our efforts in the program were directed towards making sure that there are many more women who are enabled and empowered to rise to leadership, successfully. In fact, this International Women’s Day we are celebrating our first batch of graduates from this intense program, and we are so proud of them!” Pillai said.
The campaign is supported by a worldwide social campaign featuring the female leaders of the DDB network sharing what #BreakTheBias means to them.
Created by DDB Germany, the Stabilo Boss campaign has been widely celebrated with the initial campaign platform created in 2019 highlighting three remarkable women in NASA: mathematician Katherine Johnson, US First Lady Edith Wilson, and Austrian-Sweden physicist Meitner.
