Merck women's health spinoff Organon’s latest creative efforts started organically and spontaneously when the local team at the Netherlands manufacturing facility painted a giant mural featuring women, babies and female scientists on the wall outside of the plant.
Soon after, Mexico followed suit with its own city-block-long mural created by a local artist featuring bright, bold colors and diverse images of women complete with the slogan (in Spanish), “To take care of yourself is an act of love.”
By this time, Organon corporate started to notice the trend, so the “Her Promise, Our Purpose” campaign was born to continue the trend in honor of the company’s one-year anniversary.
“We said, ‘this is fantastic.’ We loved the idea of inspiring our founders and our communities around the world with this kind of art that really represents our purpose as a company,” Geralyn Ritter, head of external affairs and ESG at Organon, said.
There were no explicit rules from the corporate office of how to continue the project, just an offer to help facilitate and support financially. The original spirit of local and organic is the goal.
Over the past year and a half, there have been 10 more murals done; some are indoors, depending on the facility, but all are focused on the promise and diversity of woman and are created by local female artists.
In the Jersey City office where Ritter works, there’s a movable canvas created by Risa Tochigi, aka Riiisa Boogie, a Japanese-American artist who is known for her use of layered textiles and materials, colors and creative images and characters.
Obviously, the Riiisa Boogie piece has a pride of place in the Jersey City office, and Ritter says the outside murals are a great place to gather and talk about the mission of the company when visiting the facilities. For those who can’t get to the sites, Organon has posted images on its social media channels as well.
The project works on so many levels.
“Women are so diverse, and some of the challenges are presented by deep-seated cultural norms. One of the reasons that I just love this project is because the murals reflect the diversity of women's experience, they reflect women's potential, and they are done by local women's artists in every country, but they all have that unifying purpose, which is really what is so exciting to us. It's our way that we bring our vision to life. It represents our purpose as a company, helping women achieve their full promise their full purpose, through better health,” she said.