Hershey Canada is drawing upon the fact that the “her” and “she” pronouns are quite literally baked into Hershey’s brand name, turning that into a good reason to celebrate the achievements of women contributing to their communities.

While the campaign has been running in different markets internationally since 2020, “it’s a global initiative now, and we’re introducing it here in Canada and adding our own specific lens to it,” says Laura Rothstein, CD at Mint, the agency that worked with Hershey Canada on the localization.

The campaign initially launched in Brazil, and in that market, “they looked at it through the lens of music artists, creating visibility around them so they could be acknowledged for their work and contributions to the industry,” adds Rothstein. In Canada, “we started from the key insight of visibility … and we came up with this idea about street culture.”

With that in mind, Hershey set out to tell the stories of women who are contributing in big ways to the communities in which they live. They found and are sharing the stories of five such women, including Toronto’s Natalya Amres, a sustainable fashion designer; Yasmeen Persad, a trans activist; Fitriya Mohamed, founder and executive director of the Muslim Women’s Summer Basketball League; Calgary’s Erica Jacobs, founder of 100% Skate Club; and Winnipeg’s Marion Willis, founder and executive director of St. Boniface Street Links and Morberg House.

“We know there are incredible achievements made by Canadian women every day, and it’s not just by diverse women, but also across diverse verticals – we wanted to make sure we were showcasing those accomplishments in areas like fashion, sport and activism,” says Brittany Chopra, senior marketing manager with Hershey Canada.

Each of the women is featured on the packaging of a special Hershey chocolate bar, and their stories are being shared across the company’s social channels – Instagram, Facebook and Tiktok.

“This is a really shareable campaign. We really want people to have access to these stories quickly and easily and to be able to share them around so they can be seen by a wider audience,” says Rothstein. “We also have a user-generated content component as well – we want other people to share their stories of women who are impacting their community, as well, because we know we’re only showing a small slice.”

In addition to the social element and special packaging, Hershey Canada has contributed $20,000 to Girl Up, the UN’s international leadership development program for women, and has also partnered with Entreprenista, a Canadian company that works to advance woman-led businesses. “Around the world and in Canada, all of the women we’re spotlighting are receiving mentorship and scholarship programs,” says Chopra, adding that the company has made these contributions to show that it is fully committed to the cause.

“This really just reinforces a lot of the programming we already have for our own employees around resource groups and a commitment to equal pay,” she adds. “Diversity and inclusion are values of the Hershey brand and we wanted to communicate that with this particular campaign.”

The campaign will be live through March 18 and media has been led by UM.