# Purposefully Absurd Commercials Equal Pay Day Sheds Light on How Women are Paid 21% Less By Jamie Danielle Munro | Published 2014-03-21 | Marketing Source: Trend Hunter, https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/equal-pay-day References: [creativecriminals](http://creativecriminals.com/equal-payday/ridiculous-commercials-about-fat-black-people) & [youtube](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OruKAxX0e9I) Equal Pay Day is trying to promote awareness about the fact that women in Belgium are still compensated 21% less than men in the same jobs. To demonstrate the absurdity of the situation, the team came up with a set of commercials to highlight how ridiculous it would be if [fat people were paid less](https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/fatso-black-friday-campaign), or even black people. These commercials are purposefully rude and [racist](https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/making-space1), because that's exactly what is happening to the women in Belgium who are being under-compensated. As the ads demonstrate, it's not like these people are genetically less intelligent or lazy, but society is still looking at them in this manner if the salary between males and females continues to be unequal. ## Trend Insights (Trend Hunter) - Score: 4.0/10 - Popularity: 30% | Activity: 83% | Freshness: 8% - Audience gender: 50% men, 50% women - Primary generations: Millennial, Gen X - Top markets: Europe ## Categories [Trend Hunter](https://www.trendhunter.com/trends) > [Marketing](https://www.trendhunter.com/marketing) > [Commercials](https://www.trendhunter.com/commercials) ## Key Themes ### What's Driving This Trend - **Purposeful Absurdity in Advertising:** Disruptive innovation opportunities exist for marketing agencies that can use purposefully absurd commercials to address social issues like unequal pay. - **Gender Pay Gap Activism:** There is potential for disruption within the activism industry if more Equal Pay Day-like campaigns and events are created to promote awareness about the gender pay gap. - **Confronting Prejudices Through Advertising:** Companies can take advantage of presenting absurd scenarios in their advertising campaigns to draw attention to societal prejudices that are still prevalent. ### Who This Affects Most - **Marketing:** Purposefully absurd commercials can provide new ways of addressing social issues and increase engagement with audiences, thereby presenting disruptive innovation opportunities in the marketing industry. - **Activism:** There are opportunities for disruption in the activism industry if more campaigns and events are launched to promote awareness about the gender pay gap. - **Advertising:** By using absurd scenarios in advertising campaigns, companies can encourage a shift from traditional strategies and disrupt the advertising industry. ## Related on Trend Hunter - [Anti-Sexist Beer Campaigns](https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/bad-t-to-good-t.md) - [Hilarious Female-Supporting Beer Ads](https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/beaver-water.md) - [Menstrual Leave Campaigns](https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/menstrual-hygiene-day.md) - [Beauty Corporate Diversity Ads](https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/so-many-dicks.md) - [Branded Female Athlete Campaigns](https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/bracket-gap-challenge.md) - [Branded Anti-Harassment Initiatives](https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/paywall-down-campaign.md) - [Unfair Advent Calendars](https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/tonys-chocolonely-countdown-calendar.md) - [Empowering Women's Campaigns](https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/prettypowerful.md) - [Diversity-Promoting Beauty Campaigns](https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/diversitypromoting.md)