Clemenger BBDO and Less Than 10% F*ck That, a global community championing female creative leadership, have partnered to call out corporations asking women to speak for free at International Women’s Day (IWD) events, adding to the unpaid labour women already do each year. The irony is enough to leave Jane Caro speechless.
The campaign features a poster that doubles as a script women can use if asked to speak for free at an IWD event.
According to official data, Australian women do around 70 per cent of all unpaid labour. Clems and Less Than 10% F*ck That have partnered for the ‘Enter The Fee Speech’ — a free presentation women can use for their talks to educate the people who’ve asked them to speak for nothing.
To promote the initiative, Clems tapped journalist and powerful social commentator Jane Caro. Caro stars in a social video calling out the corporations who use International Women’s Day as a day to extract more free labour.
“This is a great initiative from Clems, and I was delighted to take part (and get my invoice paid) having not only been asked numerous times to speak for free on IWD, but on two occasions to pay for the privilege! Women’s work is valuable, which means it should be paid,” Caro said.
“This is an issue we’ve seen play out over LinkedIn for years. We hope The Fee Speech speaks to women everywhere who’ve experienced this firsthand. But more importantly, we hope it gets through to the big organisations guilty of doing this. Who, as Jane puts it, can ‘bugger off,” Clems creative team Ellie Dunn and Hugh O’Connor added.
“At Clems we strive to make big things that Australians talk about. And this is a topic that certainly necessitates more conversation. And less mansplaining from me,” Clems CCO Adrián Flores added.
“With ‘Rights, Equality, Empowerment,’ as this year’s International Women’s Day theme, The Fee Speech is a powerful reminder to recognise and respect women’s time and talent—not just on IWD, but every single day. It also highlights a much broader issue: ensuring women are truly valued for their contributions in the workplace. This is something I’m deeply passionate about, and a conversation that must continue beyond just one day of recognition,” Less Than 10% F*ck That founder Mikhaila Warburton said.
Credits:
Client: Less Than 10% F*ck That
Founder: Mikhaila Warburton
Clemenger BBDO
CCO: Adrián Flores
ECD: Tristan Graham
CD: Heidi Kasselman
Senior Copywriter: Ellie Dunn
Senior Art Director: Hugh O’Connor
Head of Production: Ainslee Littlemore
Editors: Jen Cahir, Sam Coates
Executive Digital Director: Claire Bisset
Designer: Sebastian Sarria, Sade Ballestrin
Digital Designer: Justin Tumilaar
Head of Cultural Design: Rhian Mason
Managing Partner: Georgie Winton
Strategist: Helena Duniec
MADE THIS
Executive Producer: Ainslee Littlemore
Director: Tom Stephens
DOP: Ian Tyley
