Always: #LikeAGirl

"What does it mean to do something #LikeAGirl?"

This question, first posed in feminine hygiene brand Always' ad in 2014, elicited a flurry of responses and reactions after its initial 60-second airing during the Super Bowl. Reminiscent of Dove's empowering Real Beauty campaign, the #LikeAGirl ad - which eventually branched into a full-fledged marketing campaign - sought to break the negative stereotypes associated with being a girl.

The #LikeAGirl video showed how various young men, women, and children interpreted a series of actions - such as running, throwing, and fighting - when asked to perform them "like a girl" would. Interestingly and regrettably, most of those in the commercial interpreted "like a girl" as a demeaning phrase which devalued female strength (case in point: a majority of the older participants exhibited exaggeratedly weak portrayals), while the young girls who were asked to perform the same actions viewed the directive as an empowering statement which highlighted their own capabilities as girls.

Always and Women Empowerment

Always' campaign proved to be powerful not only in terms of the message it intended to promote, but also in the way it was introduced to the public. The ad aired during the Super Bowl, an event which attracts hundreds of millions of viewers yearly, not only in the United States, but around the world as well. Moreover, while the Super Bowl's viewership is generally deemed to be largely male-dominated, data in 2014 show that female viewers accounted for at least 46 percent of the Super Bowl viewing audience - making it a powerful tool in terms of spreading an advertising message.

Aside from the spot-on ad placement, the ad's execution style, which touched upon a pervasive, and very real issue which often limits women's capabilities, successfully made an emotional impact on its viewers, so much so that three years after the ad first aired, people still actively share the #LikeAGirl campaign video on social media*. The ad was also able to spawn various social media responses from women using the #LikeAGirl hashtag, thereby creating massive exposure for the brand.

The success of this marketing campaign lies in its advertising message - Always chose not to merely hawk feminine care products to the public; rather, what it did was highlight an issue important to women, and create a relevant and empowering message that has resonated among its target customers even up to this day. 

*This blog post was actually inspired by a #LikeAGirl video one of my friends posted on Facebook over the weekend - three years after the original ad first aired.