Unilever-owned beauty brand Lux has launched a new campaign encouraging audiences to “Change The Angle” when it comes to women’s sports.
Working with Wunderman Thompson Singapore, Lux partnered with Volleyball South Africa and sports broadcaster SABC in which they hacked a live tournament by highlighting potentially sexist camera angles — and in so doing, flipping the male gaze back on itself.
The initiative was also supported by a host of top female athletes, sports commentators and officials.
During the Durban Open volleyball tournament, South Africa’s top women beach volleyball athletes wore QR codes on their uniforms, in the same areas that sports broadcasters tend to focus on.
When scanned, the code directs the viewer to a film made by LUX in which leading sportswomen call on broadcasters and cameras to focus on their strengths and aim the lens at their sporting prowess, rather than their physical attributes.
“Women in sports are 10 times more likely to be objectified by camera angles that focus on certain body parts compared to their male counterparts. When we found out that this is also an issue for top female athletes who have achieved incredible things, we knew we had to act,” Severine Vauleon, global brand vice president of LUX, said.
“This doesn’t only devalue the female athletes’ professional performance and achievements, but also perpetuates the objectification issue many women face every day. At LUX, we believe that beauty should be a source of strength, and that the focus should be on celebrating the beauty of their strength, skills and achievements in sport.”
Beach volleyball was chosen deliberately, for obvious reasons. But, Lux said that while beach volleyball was one of the most obvious sports to highlight misdirected attention, the problem is far bigger.
As a result, key sports influencers including cricket commentator Kass Naidoo, netball star Bongi Msomi, LUX Brand Ambassador Zozibini Tunzi have thrown their considerable online and real-world influence behind the campaign, helping to spread the QR code and its underlying message.
LUX has also partnered with South African NGO, Sonke Gender Justice, to work towards helping women in South Africa to combat street harassment by affecting sustained behaviour change amongst men and boys.
“Ultimately our goal is to make people think about how female athletes – and women in general – are judged by appearances rather than performances. We want to show the world that focusing on women’s bodies, rather than their abilities, is a form of sexism that needs to be challenged,” says Marco Versolato, CCO at Wunderman Thompson Singapore.
“The ‘Change The Angle’ campaign website offers six simple guidelines to effect change in how female athletes are portrayed – and we hope that everyone who’s keen to see change will spread the word.”
