For decades, advertising for feminine care products avoided almost anything real. The ads used euphemisms, blue liquid and women in white trousers. In 2014 Always, a Procter & Gamble brand, made a film that talked about something far bigger than its product: how a common phrase teaches girls that being female means being weak.
The film
The idea was a simple experiment. Documentary filmmaker Lauren Greenfield invited people into a studio and asked them to show what it looked like to run “like a girl,” throw “like a girl” and fight “like a girl.”
Teenage girls, young women, men and a boy all did roughly the same thing: they flailed, flapped their arms, fussed with their hair and ran weakly, playing the phrase as the insult it usually is.
Then Greenfield asked younger girls to do the same. They ran as fast as they could. They threw hard. To them, doing something “like a girl” simply meant doing it their best.
The film ended with a question: “When did doing something ‘like a girl’ become an insult?”
Why it hit so hard
- The insight was real. Most people had used the phrase without thinking; the film made its effect visible.
- The proof was on camera. Viewers didn’t need to be told the phrase was damaging; they watched the contrast between older participants and young girls happen in front of them.
- It invited people to take part. The hashtag #LikeAGirl let viewers share their own reclaimed version of the phrase.
- It was directed with a documentary eye. Greenfield’s style made the film feel honest rather than staged.
The results
The campaign, created by Leo Burnett’s Chicago, London and Toronto offices, launched in June 2014. The film became one of the most shared ads of the year and has passed 85 million views.
In February 2015 Always cut the three-minute film to 60 seconds and aired it during Super Bowl XLIX, putting a feminine care brand in front of the year’s biggest TV audience. The campaign went on to win the 2015 Emmy Award for outstanding commercial.
In March 2015, for International Women’s Day, Always followed up with another online film, “Stronger Together,” and encouraged girls to share photos and videos showing “how awesome doing things #LikeAGirl really is.”
According to P&G, 76% of women aged 16 to 24 said the #LikeAGirl video changed their perception of the phrase, and they no longer saw it as an insult.
Legacy
#LikeAGirl is often grouped with Dove’s “Real Beauty” as a defining example of “femvertising,” ads that sell to women by taking their side on a real issue rather than selling insecurity. Its lasting lesson for marketers is that a brand in a category people find awkward can win attention by talking honestly about something that matters to its customers, even if it barely mentions the product.