P&G Always: Like a Girl
Always sought to increase emotional relevance among younger women, moving beyond functional confidence. The client aimed to address the confidence crisis girls face during puberty, specifically targeting the impact of gender stereotyping through language. The goal was to redefine "like a girl" positively.
Creative Idea
The campaign exposed how "like a girl" was an insult, then redefined it powerfully.
The campaign powerfully redefined the derogatory phrase "like a girl" by contrasting adults' weak portrayals with young girls' strong, confident actions, revealing how language erodes self-esteem during puberty and inspiring a global movement to reclaim the phrase as a symbol of strength.
Reclaiming an Insult to Change the World
The Two Sentence Brief
The project began with an incredibly lean directive. P&G Global VP Edgar Sandoval reportedly drafted a two - sentence brief on an airplane, tasking the team to create a "social by design" campaign that could change the world one girl at a time. This sparked an eight - month development process involving 30 people across Leo Burnett offices in Toronto, Chicago, and London. The pivotal hashtag #LikeAGirl was discovered almost by accident, spotted on a stray piece of paper during a massive brainstorming session led by CCO Judy John.
A Documentary Social Experiment
To ensure authenticity, Director Lauren Greenfield utilized a "fake" casting call to recruit real people rather than actors. This allowed her to capture the genuine, unscripted contrast between adults - who defaulted to weak, flailing stereotypes - and pre - pubescent girls who performed actions with maximum strength. This "social experiment" lens was critical for a brand that was previously struggling with relevance, often dismissed by Gen Z as "the brand my mother uses."
Global Resonance and Sales Lift
The campaign achieved 4.4 billion global media impressions in just three months, with YouTube subscribers increasing by 4,339%. Beyond the viral reach, the work drove a high - single - digit increase in sales growth and a 50% boost in purchase intent. The cultural shift was measurable: before the launch, only 19% of girls viewed the phrase "like a girl" positively; afterward, 76% of young women and 60% of men reported a change in perception. Today, the film serves as an educational tool in thousands of schools to combat the confidence crisis girls face during puberty.
Creative Strategy Deconstructed
Company
Always, with its long-standing brand equity in confidence and trust, sought to extend this into emotional relevance for younger women.
Category
Feminine care brands typically focused on functional product benefits, often overlooking deeper emotional or societal impacts on their audience.
Customer
Girls aged 10-12 experienced a significant drop in self-confidence, often exacerbated by negative gender stereotypes and language.
Culture
A growing cultural conversation around gender equality and the impact of language on self-perception created fertile ground for this message.
Company
Always, with its long-standing brand equity in confidence and trust, sought to extend this into emotional relevance for younger women.
Category
Feminine care brands typically focused on functional product benefits, often overlooking deeper emotional or societal impacts on their audience.
Strategy:
Redefine a pervasive cultural insult to empower a vulnerable demographic.
Customer
Girls aged 10-12 experienced a significant drop in self-confidence, often exacerbated by negative gender stereotypes and language.
Culture
A growing cultural conversation around gender equality and the impact of language on self-perception created fertile ground for this message.
Strategy:
Redefine a pervasive cultural insult to empower a vulnerable demographic.
Strategy Technique
Flip the Conventional Wisdom
The campaign took a commonly used, derogatory phrase and completely reversed its meaning. It transformed a negative cultural idiom into an empowering statement of strength and confidence.
Explore Technique
Creative Technique
Fight stereotypes
The campaign directly confronted the negative stereotype embedded in the phrase "like a girl." It challenged perceptions by showcasing the inherent strength and confidence of young girls.
Explore Technique
Craft Breakdown
This campaign's craft is exceptional due to the ingenious design and execution of a social experiment, masterfully directed and edited to reveal profound human insights and emotional transformation.
The director's empathetic yet probing approach was essential in eliciting genuine, unscripted emotional responses and guiding the participants through a transformative realization on camera.
The skilled juxtaposition of initial negative stereotypes with young girls' confident actions, and the careful pacing of revelations, is paramount in building the campaign's powerful narrative arc and emotional impact.
The campaign's magic truly emerges from the powerful synergy between its brilliant conceptual design, the sensitive direction that elicits authentic human truth, and the precise editing that sculpts raw moments into a cohesive and emotionally resonant story.
