Images used in the media to portray men and women are essential to build up our perception of gender stereotypes. Some brands have adopted new strategies such as challenging gender stereotypes brand themselves have contributed to build up. Building up women’s confidence and self esteem is part of their aim.
Always is a brand of sanitary pads. Therefore, it is not difficult to guess what their target group is. Last June it launched a campaign that went viral. Have a look at the video. Do you think it is effective? Did it make you reflect? If you had been asked to run like a girl what would have been your answer?
Task 1. Get into groups and discuss. Report to the group
- Do you think it is effective challenging stereotypes?
- Did it make you reflect?
- If you had been asked to run like a girl what would have been your answer?
Task 2 Read and react Now click on the image below and read a short article that appeared in the Time reviewing Always ad. Y In order to help you, we have included the meaning of blue highlighted words. In your notebook write a short review of the ad. D
Acting “like a girl” should not be an insult
A new video seeks to redefine the phrase “like a girl,” as something strong and powerful. It’s part of the larger #LikeAGirl campaign by Always, the feminine hygiene brand owned by Procter & Gamble. Award-winning filmmaker Lauren Greenfield, who directed the 2012 documentary, Queen of Versailles, teamed up with Always to illustrate the brand’s mission to empower females and attack whatAlways calls a “the self-esteem crisis” among young girls.
In the video, a cast of men and women of all ages are asked to describe what they think the phrase “like a girl” means. The result is troubling. Waving hands and flipping hair, the participants pretend to run “like a girl” and throw “like a girl.” Everyone—except, notably, the young girls—demonstrate that “just like a girl” is often perceived as an insult. Yet the young girls act out athletic and deliberate motions. The others soon realize their mistake.
Branded female empowerment campaigns are nothing new: Consider Dove’s “Real Beauty” ads, which use simple props to show how “real” women feel about themselves. And Pantene has done similar work, with a focus on dismantling gender stereotypes in the workplace. All of these ads have gone viral—an advertiser’s dream.
The #LikeAGirl video could follow a similar path. Either way, it’s worth taking a minute to watch the video to see what these young girls have to say. After all, as one woman points out in the video, “I am a girl and that is not something that I should be ashamed of.”
Some words you might fing difficult and have been highlighted in blue
seek to = try to achieve
brand= make, trademark
empower = to give power or authority to
self-esteem = favourable opinion of oneself
demonstrate = prove
yet = though, still, nevertheless (conjunction expressing contrast)
seek to = try to achieve
props = objects used on stage or movie set
dismantle = take apart
go viral = become very popular
worth taking a minute = important enough to justify spending some time
point out = indicate
Task 3
Now it is your turn to analyse other ads.
Check the Pantene and Dove’s campaigns mentioned in the article and write a brief comment on how they manage to challenge gender sterotypes.
Bla, bla, bla 4 
