The synergy between equal pay day and Mortierbrigade
Equal Pay Day, underscoring the wage disparity between men and women, highlights an ongoing struggle for fairness in the workplace. Each year, this day serves as a reminder of the work still needed to achieve equitable pay for all genders. mortierbrigade, an award-winning Belgian agency, has committed itself to championing these essential values through its innovative campaigns and initiatives.
We’ll let this prize-winner do the talking. Jens Mortier, founder and CEO of mortierbrigade, reflects on the significance of theit collaboration.
When mortierbrigade just started out, Equal Pay Day was one of its first and tiniest clients. Nearly two decades later, they’re near-conjoined twins. Their often ludicrous campaigns are synonymous with the wage gap debate.
‘Equal Pay Day is a small NGO. You could call it low-budget. You could also call it no-budget’, says Jens Mortier, founder and CEO of mortierbrigade, with a smile. ‘Vera Claes, who founded Equal Pay Day, understood we had only one chance per year to send out a message. So we had to make it count. We quickly found each other in the odd, provocative style we developed with Czar and direction team Lionel Goldstein.’
‘Equal Pay Day always gave us the freedom to go for it. That brought us success, exposure, awards, and societal change. This relationship gave us the freedom to fail. And you know what they say: if you fail, fail hard. Throughout the years, we’ve had a couple of campaigns that didn’t really hit the spot. I remember one called Shitty Jobs, in which men fulfilled all kinds of odd professions. It was fun, and it looked great. But even we couldn’t quite recall what the message should have been (laughs). But because of our close-knit bond, the client could see through it. So, the year after, we tried again, building on trust.’
