Toronto billboards will soon offer empowering messages to the city’s fierce young females.
As part of a campaign called #GirlPowered, the billboards could read things like, “The most important thing a girl can wear is her confidence,” “Girls always slay,” and “Girls are fierce like tigers.”
As the CBC reports, the campaign is spearheaded by the Canadian Women’s Foundation and in collaboration with ad agency, Havas.
It began online back in October on International Day of the Girl.
With a goal to break down stereotypes of young women as they are portrayed in ads, the campaign asked young girls what types of inspiring messages they would like to see in public – and they had a lot to say.
Let’s replace harmful messages … share your message at Girl Powered now – https://t.co/vI9j6XfZTV #girlpowered pic.twitter.com/XqWC99moZa
— Aimee Beck (@aimee_beck) December 21, 2016
More than 1,400 submissions were collected.
On Wednesday night in Toronto, a group of young girls involved in the campaign sat on a “Girls Council,” to select their top four to six messages.
The top messages will be used in a national media campaign that launches on February 6.
“From pretty much the time we’re born, girls are conditioned to look a certain way and act a certain way and think and feel a certain way and that’s why I’m here because that’s not right,” thirteen-year-old Ella Frank, who was part of the girls’ council, told the CBC.
The campaign began with humble roots, with the selected messages originally to be printed on t-shirts.
Once award-winning ad agency Havas was added to the equation, however, it was extended to include billboards.
“There’s a lot of campaigns out there that are tapping into female empowerment, but really at the end of the day those campaigns are trying to sell something, whether it’s makeup or breakfast cereal,” Cory Eisentraut, VP and creative director at Havas, told the CBC.
Not to mention, the overly sexualized images of women in advertising is a persistent issue that we haven’t left in the past. And that’s exactly why campaigns like this are so important.
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