Jagran's Apurva Purohit, YourStory's Shradha Sharma in ITC Vivel films

The films also feature Shobana Kamineni of Apollo Hospitals and Sushma Rajagopalan of ITC Infotech. The films take the brand's #AbSamjhautaNahin thought forward.

An unstoppable ambition is what defines non-conformists who aren't deterred by gender stereotypes. ITC's personal care brand, Vivel brings together such #BossWomen who have made their way to the top in a new series of videos that are part of its ongoing 'Ab Samjhauta Nahi' campaign.

Conceptualised in house by the brand, the campaign comprises four videos featuring accomplished women from different walks of life, sharing their experiences and thoughts on being a woman, sexism, parenting and family support.

The films feature Apurva Purohit (president, Jagran Group), Shradha Sharma, (founder and chief editor, YourStory), Sushma Rajagopalan (MD and CEO, ITC Infotech), and Pallavi Shroff (managing partner, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas).

Sharing stories from their personal and professional journeys, these industry stalwarts encourage women to stop compromising on their dreams and ambitions, and help in raising a generation that lives the thought of 'Ab Samjhauta Nahin'.

Launched to mark International Women's Day, the campaign is a struggle against time-worn mind sets that tend to stereotype women.

In the films, Purohit moots the idea that it is the woman who has to make the choice of being the hero, the victim or the bystander in her own story.

Sharma of YourStory believes that because women love everyone around them, they forget to love themselves. In the process, they ignore their dreams and desires and settle for a life of compromises. Her message to all parents is to love their girls for being girls.

Infotech's Sushma Rajagopalan urges parents to ignite a sense of ambition in a girl child right from childhood. In her opinion, it is important to treat both small and big ambitions equally.

(Pallavi) Shroff stresses on the need for women to believe in their capabilities and competence.

Review

According to Vipin Dhyani, founder and chief creative director, Thoughtshop Advertising & Film Productions, whenever it is possible to find a connect between brand positioning and a cause, it is fairly good to raise issues related to women through such platforms. And while these days, every brand is directly or indirectly trying to communicate the same, the important question is how much is too much?

"Recently, right after Dangal (the movie), StarTV did an ad with Aamir Khan promoting the girl child cause. The intention was noble, but the approach looked like it was shadowed by Dangal itself. In this case, the brand is trying to cement what they have said in their thematic campaign. But in today's time when thematic itself is not all that popular amongst people, a digital derivative of the same might not grip the TG well," he says.

Dhyani is also unimpressed by the execution. "Digital exercises shouldn't be treated at a very basic level such as this. Compared to thematic, it will be a cheaper format, but then lame execution hurts the brand equity for sure," he notes.