The spot opens on a soundstage with the female director asking the young lady she’s interviewing to do the first thing that comes to mind for the following actions and proceeds with, “Show me what it looks like to run like a girl.” Then she asks her and a series of others, including women, men, a young boy and younger girls to throw like a girl, fight like a girl, hit like a girl and run like a girl (you get the point).
Result: Responses totally varied by age. It seems young girls know that running like a girl means to just run and to ignore that prepositional phrase, but those a little older, think post-puberty, correlate those words with throwing poorly, running with bad form and so on.
This leads to another question, “When did doing something like a girl become an insult?”
We’ve all heard or used this phrase to mean weak before. It’s kind of genius that Always is bringing attention to this old-fashioned norm and it just may be an ad that makes a real influence on society. We’re already a community that fosters our females to “lean in” and unleash their inner “Girl Boss.” Even Barbie is taking on a new leadership role as an entrepreneur.
Advertising Age‘s review groups this ad in with other pieces of media that the writer feels paints females into balls of insecurity, and points out that Verizon’s “Inspire Her Mind” takes a similar approach with its new spot that attempts to subtly show how parents unknowingly put down daughters. It’s not the first time advertisers have used our emotions to move merchandise, since that’s what ads are designed to do.
Pantene told ladies to stop saying sorry already in its “Not Sorry” spot.
So, what’s your take on the Always #LikeAGirl ad? Will you be adding it to your list of frequent hashtags? Does it bring awareness or only highlight insecurity?
