How we built a campaign that remembered the women history forgot.
Remembering
The true definition of insight is still up for debate. But one thing everyone agrees on is that when it hits, it makes you go, “Oh shit, I’ve known this all along.”
Like most insights, this one didn’t strike during a brainstorm or a briefing call. It hit me mid-shower—an evening shower, no less (a rare event). My reporting head, Aditya Sheshadri, upon hearing this, in his regular sarcastic tone, recommended, “Take more showers.”
But we’ll circle back to that epiphany in a bit. Let’s go back to where it all began.
The Brief
It was a regular Friday. Heads buried in BAU and deadlines nipping at our heels. And out of nowhere, it landed.
The Mother’s Day brief.
We’ve seen a lot of briefs. Most come with the usual suspects: discounts, offers, and the go-to tactical messaging. But this one was different. The client, Reliance Digital, didn’t want a “deal post with a heart.” They wanted something that showed who they were beyond retail. Something that felt… conscious.
The brief simply said: “Stay true to the brand. Stay true to the moment.” We tossed around a few thoughts and called it a night. It felt like a Monday problem.
The Insight
Let’s go back to that shower. There’s a strange thing that happens when your mind is off-duty. It starts to connect dots you didn’t even know were floating around.
And that’s when I thought of school. We had chapters about male inventors. We often called them the “Fathers” of their field of expertise. Father of Electricity. Father of Computers. Father of Wireless Communication.
But I don’t remember ever learning about the “Mothers” of anything. It wasn’t that they weren’t there. It’s just that nobody pointed to them. And that’s when the idea clicked.
The Big Idea
It struck us that history had a bias. We started out searching for an idea that could rewrite the same. Something that could remind people that women were always present in the world of technology, but were conveniently left out of the footnotes.
So we began digging. And sure enough, there were women (and so many of them) who were essential to certain inventions. Their contributions were either erased or tucked away quietly while the spotlight stayed fixed on the men beside them.
We’d seen AI being used in all sorts of fun, even frivolous ways: to age celebrities, create surreal selfies, and mimic voices. But we wondered, what if we used it to recreate a memory? To put back something that was conveniently taken out of history.
We found those iconic, almost academic photos of the “Fathers of Technology”, and then bought the mothers into the frame. Literally. We used AI to stitch them into the same image. Not as side characters, but as equals.
The Process
The research turned out to be the real grind. While some names were relatively well-documented, others were buried deep in academic articles, forums, and Reddit threads.
One such image that stuck with me more than others was the iconic photo of the woman who worked as a “human computer” during the ENIAC project. At the time, people assumed they were models posing for a tech display, because surely women had nothing to do with complex machinery, right?
That just reminded us of the importance of what we were doing.
Finding usable, clear images of these women was difficult. And once we had them, recreating them was even more challenging. We didn’t want them to look like generic AI composites; instead, we wanted them to look like who they were.
That’s where the magic of the design team came in. Led by Akshay Bangera, the team meticulously stitched each composition. The real artistry came from the hands behind the screen, even though AI was the paintbrush.
The edit, too, needed finesse. It wasn’t just about sequencing visuals. It was about striking an emotional chord. Sarthak Bachchalwar took on the task of bringing all this together into a compelling narrative.
And of course, none of this would’ve made it out of our heads and into the world without the constant hustle of our client servicing team, headed by Hinal Parekh and Twinkle Parashar. Tirelessly going back and forth, gathering feedback, and making sure the core idea stayed intact through every approval round.
The Release
We dropped the film two days before Mother’s Day. Just as a piece that said what it had to say and let the world do the talking. The response was overwhelming, not just because it performed, but it made some people pause and reflect, just like we did when we thought of the idea.
The brand didn’t just want to sell something; they wanted to stand for something. And with this, I think they did.
What it meant to us
This wasn’t just another campaign. This was the kind of project that reminds you why you write, ideate, and fight for ideas.
It was one of those rare times when a piece of work gets personal. It pokes at the things you’ve long noticed but never thought would make it into a deck. It was an idea that survived five levels of approvals, not just because it was perfect, but because it was right.
And maybe that’s the real win here. We didn’t just tell a story; we gave someone theirs back.
By Neeraj Rajeev
Sr Copywriter
