In recent decades in India, many men have moved from the countryside to large cities in order to find work. Their wives often remain at home on farms and in villages. Their husbands use wire transfer services, such as Vodafone's M-Pesa, to send money back home. The women walk into town to get the money. Criminals lie in wait for them and attack.
In response to this problem, Vodafone asked the ad agency Oglivy Mumbai to design a self-defense tool. The result is this umbrella. It's not a sword cane, but a sturdy and otherwise ordinary umbrella. The key difference is that its segments contain pictographic representations of self-defense techniques. They show several ways the umbrella can can be used as a weapon.