This year, there has been decidedly more attention cast on International Women's Day, which is important, as, even in these enlightened times, many women across the world are still being made to feel as if they are somehow 'less than' their male counterparts. This is a sad fact underlined by the recent, completely undeserved furore surrounding the actor, UN women goodwill ambassador and famously pro-feminist Emma Watson, and her perfectly innocuous decision to front a photoshoot for a fashion magazine wearing a slightly revealing shirt. The ludicrous cries of hypocrisy should have fallen on deaf ears, but alas, we're living in a world where we have a noted misogynist and boastful sex offender in place as the most powerful person on the planet. So. Sigh.
Hoping to engender a little hope and perspective on the situation, however, adland has taken it upon itself this year to rally behind the cause, with many agencies and brands standing behind women in a variety of campaigns and activations, from the very big to the very small. Many of these campaigns are truly benevolent and inspiring, whilst others are simply well intentioned and some could just be accused of shamelessly jumping on the gender equality bandwagon. Whatever the case, it's genuinely comforting to see adland actually giving a shit, and here I've collected a few of my favourites to help, in my own small way, to spread the goodwill and keep the conversation about gender equality in the public consciousness. If there are any you feel I've missed out, feel free to enlighten me in the comments.
Publicis London and Massive Music use music to get the message across with Joss Stone
UBS has launched a global campaign by Publicis London highlighting its efforts around women and diversity initiatives, with a new international wave of its brand campaign focusing on women. Harnessing the power of music to enforce the message, the campaign features a version of “Free Me” by British soul singer Joss Stone, re-recorded exclusively for the campaign by MassiveMusic. Stylistically, the film expands on the financial services company’s overall brand campaign, “Life’s Questions,” which launched in 2016. This latest campaign follows on from the launch of UBS’ new sonic branding in 2015, which MassiveMusic helped to craft. This time, the team at MassiveMusic was presented with the brief to find a track that creates the right emotional context for the questions asked in the film, as well as being in line with the sonic identity of the brand. The MassiveMusic team settled on re-interpreting the Joss Stone track, which has been released on iTunes and Spotify this week. The track, which Stone wrote, fulfils several key elements of the brief as a track sung by a woman who has spoken out on the subject of gender equality, while the positive spirit of the track resonates with the campaign’s empowering message.
Moos Lamerus, Senior Producer at MassiveMusic, said: “This was one of those opportunities where we could showcase the true strength and breadth of everything we do as a full-service music agency – from song search and artist handling to music production. Working on this project with UBS and Joss Stone was a 360-degree immersive experience which gave us free rein to live up to our full potential.” Joss Stone, added: “The guys at MassiveMusic really did their homework! I am pleasantly surprised when people are aware of the real intention of my songs. When they suggested my track for this story it felt like nothing but sweet serendipity to me – a perfect fit.”
Wunderman promote the Power to Spend
Kicking off International Women’s Day with a steel-toe-capped boot to the face of inequality, three women in the creative industry have launched a fundraising initiative called The Power Spend. The simple, effective initiative asks women to turn their usual outgoings this International Women's Day into donations to three progressive women’s charities instead (click HERE to make your own donation). The initiative has been started by Charlotte Khushi (art director), Lucy Eldridge (copywriter) and Sophie Williams (creative producer); three feminists (pictured below) working in advertising at Wunderman UK. The trio are aiming to lead from the front, confronting inequality and asking the same from everyone else. The Power Spend wants women to spend differently. Rather than parting with cash for a daily coffee, fancy lunch or new clothes, the Power Spend is asking everyone to donate that spare money to the fundraising page here. 100% of the money raised will provide vital support for three charities, Refuge and Rosa Fund in the UK and the National Organisation for Women in the US.
Commenting on the launch of the initiative, Charlotte Khushi said: “Women drive up to 80% of all spending. We want everyone to flex that power on March 8th: International Women’s Day and turn their usual weekday outgoings into donations for progressive women’s charities.” Sophie Williams continues: “Our mission is to show women the power that they already hold, and give them an impactful way to use that power for the betterment of women and girls around the world. When they have a chance to thrive, the whole of society will feel the benefits. We want to help women to help themselves and each other by making tiny changes and choices that will have a huge impact.” Lucy Eldridge adds: “With regressive policies threatening to drag us back to the 1950s, we need to flex the power that we fought for in the only language the leaders of the world understand. Money. Even if you’re strapped for cash, that doesn’t mean you can’t get involved, champion this campaign and use the power of social media to encourage your friends and family to give to this worthy cause.” Pip Hulbert, COO at Wunderman concludes: “We encourage everyone at Wunderman to focus not just on work but on what matters to them; it’s about building a culture where people are celebrated for bringing their whole self to work. As part of this approach, entrepreneurialism plays a key role and it’s so inspiring to see three brilliant women putting their creative talent to work to make a difference on International Women’s Day.”
360i show solidarity with women who can't afford to take the day off
In an initiative not too dissimilar from the Power Spend, the organisers behind January’s successful Women’s March are honouring International Women’s Day by asking women around the world to take the day off from paid and unpaid labor. “A Day Without a Woman” is a protest to show the enormous socioeconomic impact that women have on the world despite being subject to things like lower wages, discrimination and sexual harassment. However, the event has been on the receiving end of criticism in recent days since many are saying it unfairly favours privileged women who can afford to take a day off of work. In response to the criticism, a pair of female creatives at digital agency 360i have created an initiative called “#EqualVoices” to show solidarity with women who can’t afford to, or are unable to participate in the strike. Women who cannot participate can go to the #EqualVoices website to fill out their names and reasons why they can’t take part in the protest; on March 8, 360i staffers participating in “A Day Without a Woman” activities will carry signs that bear the names of these women.
To their credit, the organisers of “A Day Without a Woman” have offered up other ways for women to show their support of the protest that don’t involve taking time off of work. Women who want to participate can also wear red on March 8 and avoid shopping that day (with the exception of small, women and minority owned businesses). On the Women’s March website, the issue of whether or not the event caters to the privileged is addressed in an FAQ section where the organisers explain why they believe privileged women and allies should leverage their resources for good.
Omnicom's Omniwomen celebrates by unveiling new global chapters
Omniwomen, a global organisation within Omnicom dedicated to championing the number and influence of female talent within the company, is accelerating its global expansion with four new chapter openings in Canada, France, Germany and the United Arab Emirates on International Women’s Day (IWD). The addition of these new countries brings the total number of Omniwomen regional chapters to over 10. On International Women’s Day (IWD), Omniwomen around the world will come together to celebrate the professional and personal achievements of women within the Omnicom family, and reflect on progress made. Omniwomen across Canada will gather in Toronto to kick off and initiate the new chapter; Omniwomen Germany is hosting an upwards of 150 clients and employees at their launch event in Berlin; OmniwomenUAE will launch on March 8th with an event to announce the UAE chapter; and in London, Omniwomen UK will host its third annual Leadership Summit with nearly 200 guests including internal and external speakers. In honour of 2017’s IWD theme #BeBoldForChange, Omniwomen have also challenged the women of Omnicom to share what bold action they would take to help drive gender parity and inclusiveness. Over a hundred employees from around the world participated in the initiative.
Janet Riccio, Omniwomen Founder and Dean of Omnicom University, said: “We launched Omniwomen less than three years ago and it amazes me to see the groundswell of support to increase the number of senior women within our organisation around the globe. We are fortunate to have the most talented women in our industry and it’s so inspiring to see their creativity and passion to effect change on International Women’s Day and throughout the year.” Tiffany R. Warren, SVP and Chief Diversity Officer at Omnicom, added: “Diversity has to be part of a company’s DNA if you are going to be successful long-term. At Omnicom, our commitment starts from the top and, while we still have a ways to go, workplace equality is a priority for our business,. As a member of Omniwomen, I’m proud to support their mission to address mind-sets and develop a more inclusive, holistic diversity agenda for Omnicom and our industry.”
Getty Images and Jaguar Land Rover create realistic portrayal of women in engineering
Jaguar Land Rover and Getty Images have announced a partnership on International Women’s Day, to highlight the need for a more realistic visual representation of female engineers. More people than ever are searching images of women in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) careers, yet results are often out-dated and don’t reflect today’s exciting and varied roles. This partnership aims to change that. Pictures released today by Jaguar Land Rover and Getty Images show women in a variety of STEM roles from aerodynamics to cyber and audio engineering. They are intended to encourage more women to apply for these jobs by accurately portraying the modern workplace. New data released today by Getty Images shows that web traffic for imagery showing women in engineering careers is significantly increasing. The number of people searching “women + STEM” imagery has risen by 526% in the past year alone. The Jaguar Land Rover and Getty Images collaboration sees a set of images available today for editorial use, as the partners work towards building a body of imagery, which authentically depicts female engineers at work. Jaguar Land Rover has also called for other leading manufacturers to follow suit by reassessing and updating their visual portrayal of women in STEM careers, in a bid to increase the number of women applying for STEM jobs.
Fiona Pargeter, Jaguar Land Rover Global PR Communications Director, said: “We have always championed women in the car business and are committed to inspiring more girls and women to consider careers in engineering and manufacturing. Our female workforce has grown from 9 to 11 per cent over the past four years due to our focused STEM initiatives. But this is still far too low – businesses being proactive about using realistic imagery is one of the many ways that we can attract the bright minds we need into STEM careers.” Rebecca Swift, Director of Creative Insight at Getty Images, added: “We are a passionate advocate for the realistic representation of women through imagery and are proud to be leading the visual industry in the creation and promotion of powerful, relevant imagery which celebrates diversity and authenticity in every area of life. Over the last year we have seen a dramatic spike in interest for imagery showing female engineers at work. Images have the power to make and break gender clichés so the demand for these images is both indicative and important. We have an opportunity to change the visual language around STEM for the better, so we are excited to be partnering with Jaguar Land Rover who are also committed to expanding the availability of images representing the realities of a modern day engineering career for women.”
BETC app measures every time a man interrupts a woman
BETC Sao Paolo reckons it has a solution to men who constantly interrupt women in a business environment due to often unconscious misogyny. They call this a “Manteruption.” To combat this, they created the “Women Interrupted” app, which was reportedly inspired by president Donald Trump’s 51 interruptions of Hillary Clinton during the first presidential debate last year. The app, available on iOS and Android, is capable of tracking the frequencies of recorded voices, able to determine how many times voices, its algorithm deems female was cut short.
The agency has added that it will compile all the data of users to see how many times the average user was interrupted by male colleagues, in to aid female visibility in the workplace. Additionally, the agency, keen to mark International Women’s Day, asked female artists to create posters visualising these interruptions. Building upon this, a website was also created offering stats and stories around interruption. Gal Barradas, founder and co-chief executive of BETC Sao Paola, said: “It may seem like a small problem, but it reflects deeper issues of gender inequality at work and society. The app is a way of showing that, in fact, the interruption is real and alarming.”
McCann and Microsoft encourage girls to get into STEM
International Women's Day is not just about women, it's about girls, too, and Microsoft aims to build on its past outreach this year by encouraging more girls to study science, math, technology and engineering (STEM). To mark the day, the company launched its #MakeWhatsNext campaign to help inspire young girls to take the next step. The campaign will introduce new programs and resources to girls including a tool being launched by Microsoft and LinkedIn that demonstrates how girls can pursue their passions across industries and social causes. With only 6.7% of US women (and 16% of women globally) graduating college with STEM degrees girls need more encouragement at an even younger age. In the video (above), Microsoft asks girls about the problems they are most passionate about solving, and the girls share their concerns for the water supply, about breast cancer and the overall health of the environment. These smart and poised girls then get a look at science and their particular passions through AR and VR technology, and become somewhat humbled by the possibilities they see. The video conveys that although their excitement about changing the world has merit - much of it is not possible without STEM skills. The video aptly showcases both the natural curiosity and innate intelligence of the girls - illustrated best when they see how science can change their lives. The campaign, created by m:united//McCann, will span broadcast, online/digital, events and social media including Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Twitter.
Benjamin Hiorns is a freelance writer, struggling musician and feminist from Kidderminster in the UK. For more on International Women's Day 2017 you can also check out Creativepool features on activations by J. Walter Thompson, mcgarrybowen and The Partners.