The archive · Public & Social · Marketing decision · 2020–2022
Shakti & Times of India turn selfies into nomination resumés — 25% more women elected
Women party workers in 45,000 Indian villages sent Nominate Me Selfies to male party leaders whose nomination they needed — elected women rose 25%
Shakti · The Times of India
What it had to solve
Women make up half of all grassroots political workers in India yet are extremely underrepresented in State Parliaments, because climbing the ladder requires nomination by party leaders — 90% of whom are men. Shakti and Times of India needed a way for invisible women workers to become visible, nominated candidates.
How it works
Women make up half of all grassroots political workers in India yet are extremely underrepresented in State Parliaments. The reason sits one rung up the ladder: to be nominated as candidates they depend on party leaders, 90% of whom are men.
Shakti and Times of India took the most accessible format imaginable — the selfie — and turned it into a résumé for women nominees. Female party workers were mobilised across 45,000 villages and bombarded male party leaders with Nominate Me Selfies in the one place they could not ignore: their phones.
The result was a 25% increase in elected women. The work is preserved in the D&AD awards archive under Experiential: Activation & Participation and Media as a documented example of turning an everyday phone habit into political action.
Why it lands
- Every grassroots woman already had a phone and knew how to take a selfie, so participation cost nothing.
- Putting the demand on leaders’ personal phones bypassed the gatekeepers, meetings and filters that usually silence women workers.
- The selfie made each woman visible as an individual with credentials, not an anonymous statistic.
- Because the appeal was non-partisan — any party’s leaders could receive it — it scaled across 45,000 villages.
What it did
The result was a 25% increase in elected women. The work is preserved in the D&AD awards archive under Experiential: Activation & Participation and Media as a documented example of turning an everyday phone habit into political action.
What you can take
Deliver the demand through the gatekeeper’s most personal channel in a format every woman already owns — a selfie on a leader’s phone is hard to ignore
Since then
The Nominate Me Selfie remains a documented example of using a mass-market phone habit for political representation: women across 45,000 villages sent their selfie-resumés to party leaders, and elected women rose by 25%. The work is preserved in the D&AD awards archive under the Experiential and Media categories.
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