Always #LikeAGirl

“You throw like a girl”. “Stop being such a girl”. “Stop being such a drama queen”. How would you react if someone told you any one of those phrases? Some people, women included, would be offended.

Always, is one of the world’s largest and leading producers of feminine care products. Its company motto is “Always is dedicated to helping women embrace womanhood positively- from the beginning of puberty through their adult lives.". The ad debuted during the biggest football game of the year,

the super bowl. In the ad, we are shown how different people view the phrase “like a girl”. Always hoped to help change the conversation about what it means to be a girl, especially in relation to how females run, throw or do any other activity. The “like a girl” ad helped boost awareness, confidence and self-esteem, and also helped the brand win mass accolades for changing the narrative about women.

    

This ad brought attention that it is not only men who have this sexist perspective, but it affects both genders. From this ad, and our daily experiences, we get the idea that doing something like a girl has a negative connation to it, like doing something in less passionate, weak and wrong way. The aim of this commercial is to encourage young girls, and everyone else, to reexamine the bias we have and encourage women and girls that they are just as capable, strong and to keep doing what they are doing and not let stereotypes diminish their confidence. It encourages all genders to challenge the ideologies of society.

I think one of the best moment in the commercial is when we see the group of young girls being asked, “When did doing something ‘like a girl’ become an insult?” One of the young girls says, “I’m not sure if it’s a bad thing or a good thing. It sounds like a bad thing.” Then the original cast realizes the underlying sexism of what they have done, and encourage young girls to keep with their passions.

The target audience in this ad is mainly young women, especially those aged 8-16 as they are at an age where they are easily susceptible to sociocultural factors seem to start influencing. But the ad could also be said to be targeted to the men, and again mainly young men, as a wakeup call to be more aware of the way they are helping, whether knowingly or unknowingly, encourage women to be ashamed of themselves.

In addition, the use of color is arguably among the most powerful communication tools in any media design. The use of blank blue background throughout the commercial is an intentional ploy of the director to evoke sincerity, as all the attention is on the cast. The color blue gives us a feeling of stability and quality, and doesn’t attract attention on the surroundings but emphasizes the content.

This ad takes a reception and experience approach to feminist work on popular culture. The Always advertisement represents values that are often inherent in feminist thinking, through the ad we are challenged to think about what kinds of images are presented and what do those images reveal about women’s position in the culture; and what are the consequences of those images. We see the social construct that “boys are better than girls.” Women are assumed to be inferior to men in many aspects of life, including work performance, athletic ability, and intelligence. Always challenges these power structures by illustrating a different, more realistic picture, one in which girls are just as capable and strong as their male peers. In the scene at the end of the ad where the older girls are shown playing their sports, Always shows that girls have untapped potential that would go undiscovered due to a socially constructed weakness that girls supposedly have.

 The ad did induce strong sentiments about what it means to be a woman in this patriarchal society. However, assuming one had no knowledge about the Always brand you would think that they were some sort of feminist organization, and not a manufacturer of feminine products.  While their calculative choice to not use a product-orientated approach paid off, as they managed to improve their brand image and use emotion to coax consumers into thinking about buying their products, it does make me question their motive. As discussed in her article, journalist Emily Shire argues that the campaign is emotionally exploitative, If Always is going to attach a message about self-confidence without any actual mention of the product they sell or menstruation in the commercial, it seems somewhat deceptive.

While I commend Always for taking a stance on such a trivial and important matter, and using rather sophisticated and tactful marketing in doing so. But at the end of the day, their motive is profit. I think that it is odd and suspicious that they don’t mention how their products will help empower girls, they didn’t release a statement that they will donate to a girl’s fund or help create more opportunity for women. Essentially it was just another hyped campaign in which people will forget about after a while. However, as shown by some studies, the impact that the campaign had on Always’ market share was undeniable.

Always isn’t the first company accused of using the guise of women empowerment to further their agenda, Dove’s “real beauty” campaign always faced great criticism about the sincerity of their ads and whether it was just another clever marketing trick to get us to buy more of their products or whether they actually care about empowering women.

Was I moved by the like a girl campaign? Yes. Did it make me more likely to buy an Always product next time I go shopping? Not really.