Welcome To The Real World!

 

Every year on the third of December which is the International Day for Persons With Disabilities, I post something on my social media in the hope that someday people will be a little more sensitive towards us. This year, since I am managing content for half a dozen brands, I had the privilege of spreading the message at a larger scale through some brands’ marketing, at least that’s what I thought. 

Out of all the brands, there is one that deals in gym bags, protein shakers, and other workout essentials and an idea immediately struck my mind. 

I found a stock image of a man with a prosthetic leg working out and gave it to my graphic designer with the copy “Don’t Quit”. I asked him to place the gym bag and a shaker in the creative and make it for their social media for being posted today. 

Of course, I knew I was being ambitious and the brand had all the rights to reject the post if they did not find it in sync with their brand values, even though the post nowhere mentioned anything about the “day”.

As soon as I sent the mail containing the content and the image to my designer, I received his call. To be honest, I was expecting the “call” and I knew he would be a little surprised but what followed was beyond my imagination. 

He started the conversation with, “ Can you pls send some other image for this post, this one is not looking nice”. I was a little taken aback and asked him multiple times, what was so wrong with it? But all he kept saying was that he needed another image and if I can’t find one he will add one himself. I cut the call and sent him another image, of the same man but in a different position. 

He immediately sent me a voice note which set the tone for me for the rest of the day. It said, “Aashima, this image will dull the grid, pls send some nice attractive man/woman because anyway the focus is on the bag. The model should look “energetic” and that they should be “normal”. I am not even exaggerating. These were his exact words.

To give you some context, even though we mostly work from our respective homes, we have met multiple times in the office, giving no reason for me to give him the benefit of doubt. He clearly knew who was he talking to and about what. 

I texted my senior/ founder of the agency about what just happened and that it was very offensive to me. I told her how I had my inhibitions about the content but the fact that a designer rejected it to my face was very shocking, especially when I am his senior and he has been working under me for 2 months now.  Her reply, in my support, made me smile. She assured me that we are doing the concept and that I should not let all of this affect my mental peace.

We discussed and decided to give the creative to our design intern, who beautifully portrayed my vision. I sent it to the brand and guess what, boom, it got approved within a second. Just before uploading this blog, I made the post live on the brand’s page and it was empowering AF. 

That day I learnt a lot of things, for instance, how you can be working with people for months and still be unaware of their conditioning and thought process w.r.t societal issues like disability or that, how much ever you achieve professionally, you’ll remain physically “unattractive” to the society.