Bakery makes fundraising for gender equality a piece of cake
Howard Lake | 11 April 2016 | News
Bittersweet Pies, now available from Paul bakeries across Romania, share a campaigning message about gender inequality in the sweetest way, and raise funds to do something about it.
Claiming the cakes as the “first ever social desserts in the world”, Paul intends them to highlight the gender inequality in Romanian society by turning cakes into statistics pie charts.
All the cakes are of course 100% edible, and that includes the statistics. They are based on Paul’s original cake recipes (Fleur de Lys, Tartelette citron, and Tartelette au chocolat).
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The cakes include:
- The “Salary Gap” cake
- The “Misrepresentation Cake” (in politics)
- The “Extremely Rich Cake”
- The “Startup Exclusion Cake”
- The “Glass Ceiling Double Cake”
The latter shows the inequality in senior management positions compared to mid-management level positions)
5% of sales donated
Paul will donate 5% of the revenue from all “Bittersweet Pies” sold to the FILIA Foundation, which is running a project aimed at reducing the gender gap by training rural women and preparing them for the modern professions.
Monica Eftimie, Chief Marketing Officer Paul Romania, explained how the campaign originated. She said:
“The CSR project ‘Bittersweet Pies’ has started from a social issue every Romanian woman faced at least once in her life. Knowing from research data that sweets are more often consumed by women than by men, we are launching a range of cakes to spark the conversation about gender inequality, inviting women to take the necessary steps for having the same rights as men have. We are excited and very proud to be pioneers in having the 1st ever ‘social dessert’ line and hope that our clients will appreciate it and will contribute to reduce this gender gap”.
Nir Refuah, CEO and Chief Creative Officer, MRM//McCann Romania, which worked with Paul on the campaign added:
“According to The World Economic Forum 2015 Global Gender Gap Report, Romania was rated number 114 out of 145 countries in political equality, and scored low also on health and financial inequality. The bittersweet project takes a mission to spread the data, create awareness, and spark conversation in every household in Romania about the importance of closing this gap.”
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About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.