Social ActionScott Harrand

“This Girl Can” Campaign

The “This Girl Can” campaign is a series of posters and videos depicting women participating in various sports and exercises. The posters are combined with often witty or motivational phrases overlaid on the images. The videos follow a similar format, using many of the same women that feature in the posters, with many of the same mottos and slogans appearing in the video section of the campaign that appear in the poster section of the campaign. The campaign aims to promote and support women who take part in sport and other exercise activities. The campaign reinforces positive body image by showing a variety of women in all shapes and sizes. This makes the campaign more appealing to a wider audience as more women can relate to this campaign than if they had chosen to use women who looked relatively similar, and fit into a certain demographic of physical appearance. The campaign falls into various purposes for social action campaigning, as it a rather clear example, for one, of challenging dominant representations and agendas, as it promotes women of various body types and ages and appearances engaging in activities to keep healthy, which traditionally women have not been as encouraged in or celebrated in. By extension, this campaign could be seen as trying to change attitudes. The campaign also, arguably, has the effect of creating and/or strengthening community ties, especially through the advent of it’s social media aspect, having created a hashtag through which people can share their own motivational stories about activities or exercise with others, creating a community tie. The campaign can also be considered as a campaign that is trying to build a relationship with it’s subjects, as the women used in the advertisements are a range of women of different ages and appearances. The campaign also encourages women to share their stories of exercise and activity through the hashtag, which truly engaged with it’s subject and made them apart of the campaign.

Impact of “This Girl Can” CampaignThe “This Girl Can” campaign, despite having only existed for less than a year, has been wildly successful. The campaign encouraged women to share their exercise experiences through the use of the hashtag “#thisgirlcan” which many women have and continue to do. As evidenced by the many usages of the hashtag, it would seem that the campaign did have considerable success in their goal of inspiring more women to get involved in sports and activities, or that many people were at least aware enough of the campaign to make the usage of the hashtag widespread. The video for the campaign, less than a year after it’s release, has already gained over 8 million views on Youtube. While it is difficult to quantify the effects of the campaign, as there is little record of exactly how many women in

in the UK exercise, or how much that number has increased in the short time since the campaign was launched, it can certainly be seen that the campaign was very well known and widespread.

Fundacion ANAR(Aid to Children and Adolescents at

Risk) CampaignFundación ANAR is a Spanish organization aiming to protect and support victims of child abuse. This particular advertising campaign from the organization is quite unique and innovative, as it makes use of an interesting visual technique. A person standing at the full height of an average adult will only see a section of dark text, saying “Sometimes, child abuse is only visible to the child suffering it”, combined with a picture of a young child. However anyone standing at about 1.35m, the average height of a ten year old child, will be able to see bruises appear on the child’s face, with the phone number for the organization combined with text urging children to call if their parents hurt them. The campaign was an interesting and innovative technique to use, and it was shared on various forms of social media. This raises even greater awareness by infiltrating mainstream media and having the message spread, as well as the organization’s phone number. The organization themselves had stated that the advertising campaign going viral had a profoundly positive effect for the organization, as it lead to the number for the organization being passed around on a viral level, leading to greater awareness of how to contact the organization. While going viral may not have been the initial intention of the campaign, it was indeed the effect, and therefore it can be argued that the campaign infiltrated the mainstream media, to reach a wider audience of various forms of social media on the internet. The purpose of the campaign is also to provide information, as the number of the organization was put on the advertisement (albeit, visible only to people of a certain height) to inform those who are most likely to need it.

Impact of “Fundacion ANAR (Aid to Children and Adolescents at Risk) Campaign

According to the organisation themselves, the campaign was especially successful as a result of having gone viral and having the information spread on a much more wider scale. They reasoned that this meant that the more people who knew about the advertisement, the more people who knew about the organization and also how to contact them, as their phone number was being spread about. The campaign was certainly seen by a large amount of people, after having been spread on so many various forms of social media, so it is not unlikely that this may have resulted in more children who were in need of the information being made aware of it. It is difficult to find statistics regarding the rates of child abuse in Spain, or of how many children the organization was able to help after this campaign was launched. Because of this, there is no quantifiable data to say that this campaign had a drastic effect, but it does not contradict that possibility either.

Party Vote Green Campaign

The Green Party is a political party in New Zealand. This is one of the many posters and various media used by the party to promote them to the voting populace. In this particular poster, it features a young girl standing at the end of a pier, with a vast body of water behind her. She is looking directly into the camera, with the words “Vote for me” written in large letters across her, and the text imploring the audience to vote for the Green party in smaller, yet no less visible, letters. This campaign appeals to it’s audience because it asks them to think about the children, and how their voting may affectthem, with the poster suggesting that their children would have a better future with the Green party in power. The use of a child in the poster also plays upon people’s sympathies and emotions. The background of the poster is quite an idyllic scene, with a peaceful lake and soft colours such as whites and blues and purples. The main reason for this campaign is to change voting behaviour, as it is sending across a strong message to persuade people to vote for the Green party, as evidence by the secondary set of text on the lower part of the image. Arguably, the poster raises awareness for the party being advertised, as people who were not initially aware of the party before they saw the campaign may go on to find out more about the party and further their voting options. Although, this effect does tie in with the effect of changing voting behaviour. The campaign is also most certainly concerned with bringing about national change, because they are trying to effect how the nation is ruled by changing who it is that rules it, namely the Green Party, in this situation.

Impact of the “Party Vote Green” Campaign

This campaign was launched during the 2008 New Zealand election, during which the Green Party gained considerable success, especially compared to the previous election in which they managed to lose seats rather than gain. In the 2008 election, the Green Party did not quite manage to win the election, but did increase their amount of seats in parliament by a third, and become the third largest parliamentary party in the country. While the successes of the Green Party in the 2008 election cannot solely be traced back to the implementation of this particular campaign, it is likely that the campaign had some effect on the number of voters, however small.

Debenhams's Diversity CampaignThis campaign, produced by the department store Debenhams, aims to promote diversity in it’s models, and broaden the parameters that define a model. Many of the models featured in the campaign defy the typical characteristics that models are generally considered to have, and many of them are of varying ages, ethnicities and body types, as well as there being a few models with visible disabilities and missing limbs. Debenhams’s themselves have stated that the campaign wasintended to reflect and celebrate the diversity of their own

customers, who did not all look like the models they were initially using. The photoshoot has been shot with vibrant colour on the models and their clothes, with a white background, to draw greater attention to the models. Generally, it has been shot in a similar way to any model photoshoot, perhaps to underline the fact that these models are not perceived as any different. This campaign seems to be an example of trying to create access to media production for non-traditional groups, in this case, being models. The models used are a part of groups that are generally considered not traditional in the modeling industry, and this campaign gives them a chance they may not be likely to find elsewhere to break into the industry and get noticed, which models that more suited the traditional look may find much less difficult.

Impact of “Debenhams’ Diversity Campaign”

Arguably, the Debenhams’ Diversity Campaign’s main impact was to promote sales and customer numbers in Debenhams’ stores. However, despite their being a marketing slant to the campaign, this does not necessarily negate the other impacts of the campaign. For example, this campaign allowed for a group of models who elsewise may not have been as well known in the modelling industry to have a break into the public eye and make a name for themselves, aided by the popularity of the Debenhams’ brand. For some of them this could potentially lead to additional modelling jobs and a successful modelling career, which may not have been possible if they had not been brought to the public eye by the campaign. Another potential impact of the campaign is to improve the self-esteem of the campaign’s audience, which is an impact that is difficult to quantify, but nonetheless a valuable impact.