In 2014 feminine hygiene brand Always released a groundbreaking commercial/campaign titled ‘Like A Girl’ which broke through mainstream conversations to get people talking about how that phrase is often used as a negative gender stereotype. During the 2015 Super Bowl, there was a heavy presence of “femvertising” which included that very ad and got more men involved in the conversation about how words can negatively affect young boys and girls in their identity as they grow up.
The #likeagirl effect has been so big that the company have now made a follow-up video to the first one showing the overwhelming response they received from girls around the world who are embracing their girliness in everything they do.
Every now and then something comes along and changes our culture in a drastic way. Dove have been doing this for over a decade with their brand of “real beauty” campaigns. The whole femvertising sphere has really blown up and allowed feminism to be part of the advertising industry in the hope that it will change the conversation around gender identity. We are ALL for that!
The second video, titled “Strong Together” was released just in time for International Women’s Day (March 8) and although we usually celebrate March as Women’s History Month, we think this commercial is looking into the future of what female empowerment is going to look like in the coming years.
According to data from P&G‘s “Always Puberty & Confidence Wave II Study”, 76 percent of women and 59 percent of men ages 16-24 said the video changed their perception of the phrase “like a girl.” Also, 81 percent of women said the video can change the way people think about the stereotypes surrounding women’s physical abilities.
“The theme of this year’s International Women’s Day is ‘Make It Happen,’ and that’s exactly what girls are doing by rewriting the meaning of #LikeAGirl,” said Always global VP Fama Francisco.
“The new video celebrates amazing young girls around the globe and encourages everyone to continue the movement every day and everywhere, because together, we’re making #LikeAGirl mean amazing things.”
The video’s description shares what happened after Always released their first video.
“We started a conversation to help change all that with our #LikeAGirl social experiment and film. And millions of girls from around the world responded big time. In fact, many of you started a movement: you shared your videos and personal stories, and showed the world that doing things #LikeAGirl really is downright amazing.”
In the video below you see footage of girls from many different countries who are proud of everything they do who aren’t trying to embrace masculine traits to appear successful or awesome. While some may criticize this kind of advertising saying it is isolating men, etc, we disagree. It is about time the advertising world portrayed women as strong, independent beings who are empowering by their femininity, whether they are walking down a runway, dunking a basketball, doing homework, or hanging with their friends.
Gender stereotypes hurt both men and women, and perhaps there should be a company to address the ridiculous ideals that men are held to. We would we ALL about that! When men and women are given permission to like who they are, and not forced to squeeze their identity into a narrow mold created by a corporation in order to sell a product, we begin to see exponential growth not just in sales, but in the way our culture is evolving, progressing and being enlightened about the fight for gender equal portrayals.
Because like the video says, we ARE stronger together.
