Always | #LikeAGirl | 2014
Three Minutes That Turned "Like a Girl" from a Curse into a Badge of Honor / Always "#LikeAGirl"
When you ask a grown-up to "run like a girl," they flail their arms and legs around and laugh. But ask a girl who hasn't hit puberty yet, and she runs with everything she's got. That gap took my breath away.
The problem
Always had spent years talking about "trust," but that message had stopped landing with young women. Research turned up something striking: only 19% of women had a positive impression of the phrase "like a girl." More than half of girls lose confidence during puberty, and this phrase was found to be part of the reason why.
The insight
The moment the team at Leo Burnett spotted this phrase in a meeting room, the whole mood in the room changed. "Like a girl" was a label society had slapped on without asking—to the girls themselves, it just meant "with everything I've got." The instant everyone noticed that disconnect, they knew: this was the truth.
The idea
They brought in photographer Lauren Greenfield to direct. With no script, she filmed people of all ages—from children to adults—running and fighting "like a girl." The young girls ran and fought without hesitation, full force, but the older the subjects got, the weaker and more halfhearted their movements became. The ad simply showed that gap as it was, and called on people to take back the meaning of the phrase under the hashtag #LikeAGirl.
What happened
Within two months of its 2014 release, the video had been watched 90 million times. It also aired during the 2015 Super Bowl and went on to win more than 150 awards, including the Grand Prix at Cannes Lions, the first-ever Glass Lion and Titanium Lion, and an Emmy. After watching it, 76% of viewers said they no longer saw "like a girl" as something negative.
Afterthought
Great ideas are always simple. A phrase that had been belittled for so long was flipped on its head using nothing but real reactions—turned from a curse into a badge of honor. I want to live my life "like a girl" too, giving it everything I've got!
Awards
- Cannes Lions Grand Prix 2015
