Adland has a track record of using women in unrealistic or harmful ways to push their campaigns, and now ad company Badgers & Winters has created its own campaign to stand up against it.
Released for International Women’s Day, the advertising company behind January’s viral #WomenNotObjects campaign hopes to show how the objectification of women in the advertising industry can actually harm women.
The spot shows how young girls look up to celebrities and models in advertising, and how they try to live up to impossible beauty trends.
It also showcases how advertising can trivialise sexual assault and can even glamorise violence against women, such as this one:
“Girls are growing up thinking that how they look is more important than how they feel, or who they are and what they can do,” the ad’s narrator says.
The ad ends with this question: ‘Will you stand up for your mother, daughter, friend, co-worker, future? Will you stand up for yourself?’
Badger & Winters are asking others to stand up to objectification in advertising by posting videos to Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook using the hashtag #IStandUp.
Madonna Badger, the chief creative officer of Badger & Winters, is a legend in adland, counting Diane von Furstenberg and Chanel as clients and playing a major role in creating the iconic 90s Calvin Klein ads that made Kate Moss famous.
“Women are objectified in almost every type of advertising that’s out there, Badger told Mashable.
“Objectification of women really harms women, and it really harms children and teenagers. Once Jim [Winters, the president of Badger & Winters] and I became aware of that harm, we decide to do something about it.”
