Migrant workers group TWC2 "not involved in creating" the Mums and Maids video

TWC2 also said that the buzz generated from the controversial video was what they had hoped for all along.

Ng Yi Shu| April 27, 04:42 PM

Update [April 28, 1600 Hrs]: TWC2 said that the video was part of an “internal initative” by Ogilvy & Mather, where employees brainstormed on ideas to improve life in Singapore. O&M revealed a breakdown of its 3.9 million video viewership figures, as the video appeared not only on Youtube, but TimeOut Hong Kong Facebook, Suria Mohd FacebookRj Bhairavi Facebook and imgur. 

Migrant workers group Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2) revealed in a statement that it was not involved in the creative process behind the controversial Mums and Maids video released last Thursday.

The video, which was part of a joint campaign between the non-government organisation (NGO) and marketing communications firm Ogilvy & Mather, aimed to highlight the fact that many maids in Singapore do not have days off.

But the video had resulted in flak both online and offline as some felt that it portrayed mothers negatively.

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on "Mums and Maids" film27 April 2015Statement on “Mums and Maids” filmMultiple viewpoints have been...

Posted by TWC2 on Sunday, April 26, 2015

The video has received approximately 397,000 video views so far, with TWC2 claiming that the video has "reached more than 2.6 million viewers worldwide, according to O&M’s tracking".

“Never has the issue of domestic worker’s right to a day off been discussed on this scale and generated so much buzz,” TWC2 said.

The campaign had focused on “modern parents’ fear of missing out”, Eugene Cheong, chief creative officer of O & M Asia Pacific told Marketing Interactive.

“By showing how parents are losing out on their relationship with their children by always requiring their domestic worker to be around, we reposition their day off as an opportunity to enhance family bonding,” Cheong added.

Others disagree with the video's strategy

Some, including gender equality advocacy group AWARE, felt that the video shames mothers and held them solely responsible for childcare.

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does fantastic work and we 100% support the call for domestic workers' rights and days off. It's a pity that this...

Posted by AWARE Singapore on Thursday, April 23, 2015

Jolovan Wham, Executive Director at migrant rights group Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics (HOME), wrote in a

target="_blank">Facebook note that while the video was promoting a "laudable message", it was doing so at the expense of working mothers.

"What the video fails to do is show how the mother’s plight is actually intimately tied to the low status of domestic work and the devaluation of the domestic worker,” he said. "Child minding has low value because it is perceived as labour which does not require much skill, and is supposed to come naturally to women.”

TWC2 acknowledged the negative feedback about the video

TWC2 acknowledged disagreements about the video, highlighting that it was "meant to be provocative". It also noted that "others were angered" because mothers were portrayed as inadequate parents, and the role of the father was not mentioned.

But the NGO preferred to focus on the relationship between employers and their domestic workers.

"Much still needs to be done to shift mindsets and change underlying structures in our society so that domestic workers are treated fairly and have the same employment rights as other workers.”

 

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