With a focus on ‘The Feeling, Not The Scales’, February saw Australia’s VicHealth extend its ongoing ‘This Girl Can’ campaign with fresh creative featuring everyday women of all different ages, cultures, body-shapes and abilities all getting active.
The new campaign aims to smash the stereotype that active women have to look a certain way
Working with agency The Shannon Company, the creative stars everyday women from right across the state – from body-positive personal trainer Natasha Korbut to amputee swimmer Karen Veldhuizen – and aims to encourage women to focus on how getting active makes them feel rather than what it makes them look like.
Spearheaded by a film series, the spots come in 60-second
30-second
and 15-second versions.
The spots were directed by Celeste Greer and are set to music by Okenyo and include call-to-action to Victorian women inspired and encouraged by the work to join the ‘This Girl Can’ movement either through thisgirlcan.com.au or by joining the community on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and follow the #ThisGirlCanVic.
Plus, to provide more inclusive and participatory opportunities to get active, ‘This Girl Can Week’ will be held across Victoria from 23-29 March 2020.
Clubs, local councils, gyms and community groups who want to find out more about hosting a ‘This Girl Can Week’ event or activity can register as a campaign supporter at thisgirlcan.com.au.
Women who want to get involved are also encouraged to visit thisgirlcan.com.au to find activities and events in their local area.
The work continues to be informed by research from health promotion foundation VicHealth which shows that despite their popularity on Instagram, most Victorian women are actually turned off exercise by seeing images of perfectly toned #FITSPO influencers.
The research also shows that two-thirds of women are not motivated to get active after seeing so called ‘fitspiration’ images (#FITSPO photos) on social media.
Indeed, such images make a third of women ‘feel bad’ or ‘inadequate’ about their own bodies and fitness levels.
Indeed, what actually motives three-quarters of Victorian women are videos and imagery of everyday women with a wide range of body shapes getting active.
The campaign, which was launched by Minister for Health Jenny Mikakos, is led by hero television commercials and supported by additional content across multiple platforms.
“This Girl Can – Victoria is all about empowering women to believe in themselves and feel comfortable getting active, whether it’s going for a walk with their dog, doing yoga in their trackies at home, dancing with their friends or kicking goals on the sports field,” said Mikakos.
“I encourage Victorian women to give physical activity a go and show that in Victoria this girl definitely can!”
“We’re bombarded with imagery of women with so-called “perfect” bodies working out without even breaking a sweat, which sends a message that there’s something wrong with us if we don’t look like that,” said VicHealth head of This Girl Can Melanie Fineberg.
“Our research shows women want advertising that shows women of all shapes and sizes getting active in a realistic way – sweat, red faces, jiggles and all. The women featured in our campaign are everyday women with real stories and realistic bodies. We hope other women will relate to their struggles and triumphs and think if she can, I can too.”
Fineberg also added that marketing and social media too often tells women to think about being active as a way to lose weight or improve how they look, but that the research shows that for many women what keeps them coming back to physical activity is the feeling they get rather than the number on the scales.
“The women in our ad celebrate how getting active makes them feel – whether it’s the fun of playing in a team, the calm of yoga or the joy of diving in the water. This Girl Can – Victoria isn’t about weightloss. It’s about moving our bodies because it feels good and because we can,” continued Fineberg.
Key stats:
• A new VicHealth survey of over 1000 Victorian women found:
Around two-thirds of women (66%) aren’t motivated by #FITSPO images of women on Instagram.
Over three-quarters of women find seeing women of all different body shapes getting active motivating.
A third of women feel bad or inadequate about their own bodies and fitness when they see #FITSPO images on Instagram.
Younger women aged 18-34 were more likely to compare themselves to women on Instagram and women wearing the latest active wear in fitness advertising than older women.
Over half of women said seeing women with a range of body shapes makes them feel ok or good about their own bodies and fitness.
Young women aged 18-34 were more likely to feel bad about themselves after seeing #FITSPO images than older women.
Almost 80% of women want to see more women with a range of body shapes included in physical activity advertising.
• Since 2018, more than 400,000 Victorian women were more active after seeing the campaign
• Almost 90% of women who have seen the ad believe it helps women be more confident
• 52% of Victorian women worry about being judged when exercising
• 41% of Victorian women are embarrassed or intimidated when exercising in public
Comment:
This is more than a public health multimedia campaign, but a statewide women’s movement where women support one another to become more active.
The latest work follows in the footsteps of the original (and highly successful) ‘This Girl Can – Victoria’ campaign which launched in 2018 and has already inspired more than 400,000 women to get active.
Links:
VicHealth
https://www.vichealth.vic.gov.au/
https://www.facebook.com/VicHealth
https://www.youtube.com/user/VicHealthMedia
https://www.linkedin.com/company/victorian-health-promotion-foundation-vichealth-/
The Shannon Company
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