In 2015 during the Superbowl, an empowering ad for young girls and women was featured. In the advertisement, these women are asked questions that are aimed at having them display their gender on camera. The advertisement appears to be refreshing and insightful. The advertisement, created by Always, entitled "Always #LikeAGirl" shows these girls being asked to act out throwing, running and hitting like a girl while being filmed. The responses of the older girls are flouncy, often mirroring the mannerisms of dainty girls seen in movies that are purposely making themselves inferior. When the older girls act out these actions, they are falling into the stereotype of women being delicate, not athletic and too feminine.
In this Always commercial, there is an emphasis on showing that multiple girls at the beginning of the advertisement view their gender as dainty and demonstrate that they are incapable of running, hitting and throwing appropriately. This is further shown when an early 20 year old man acts out the actions in a similar way when asked to run like a girl. Once that man runs, a younger boy also acts out in a similar way in reaction to the same instructions. By conveying this message in this way, the Always advertisement is setting what Jhally terms “gender displays,” which are the extremely concentrated reflections of gender relations (what it means to be male/ female in society). Always is displaying commercial realism to present the world in ways that could be true, might don’t have to be. This advertisement then progresses to show that the only people that do not have this disconnected view about the abilities of women and girls are the young girls who have not yet been exposed to this negative messaging.
In this Always commercial, there is an emphasis on showing that multiple girls at the beginning of the advertisement view their gender as dainty and demonstrate that they are incapable of running, hitting and throwing appropriately. This is further shown when an early 20 year old man acts out the actions in a similar way when asked to run like a girl. Once that man runs, a younger boy also acts out in a similar way in reaction to the same instructions. By conveying this message in this way, the Always advertisement is setting what Jhally terms “gender displays,” which are the extremely concentrated reflections of gender relations (what it means to be male/ female in society). Always is displaying commercial realism to present the world in ways that could be true, might don’t have to be. This advertisement then progresses to show that the only people that do not have this disconnected view about the abilities of women and girls are the young girls who have not yet been exposed to this negative messaging.
The advertisement furthers stereotypes
It’s ironic to realize what Always is trying to convey and the lengths they are going to in order to get this message across. The commercial is targeting negative messaging and trying to reclaim the usage of those words, but yet the advertisement furthers those stereotypes by showing them to be the norm. This advertisement is inviting the audience to draw their own meaning, and because these stereotypes are being perpetuated for a significant portion of the ad, viewers are dragged into this belief system too. At 01:26 the young girl says that the usage of the phrase “like a girl,” “makes it sound like you’re trying to humiliate someone.” It’s an interesting juxtaposition to see this young woman so aptly unravel the advertisement in such an apropos way. Like a girl is used over and over within the advertisement, but the connotation of it as a girl being lesser than a man in all ways, including physical ability is carried throughout the ad. By contrast, the young girls featured in the advertisement run, throw and hit in powerful ways, conveying the message that at that age, they haven’t yet fallen victim to the low self-esteem that will eventually plague them when they get older as a result of hearing “like a girl” used in a demeaning way.
A particularly hard-hitting part of the advertisement occurs when the young boy admits, “yeah, I insulted girls, but not my sister.” The concept of “like a girl” is framed in this commercial to tear down the strength of women, and then that is furthered when the young boy admits he wasn’t insulting his sister. From this it can be inferred that he didn’t associate his sister with the term girls, which in one way can be touching because she means more to him than that, but conversely gender is innately part of who we are, and yet the little boy removed that element of power that his sister had, with his words.
A particularly hard-hitting part of the advertisement occurs when the young boy admits, “yeah, I insulted girls, but not my sister.” The concept of “like a girl” is framed in this commercial to tear down the strength of women, and then that is furthered when the young boy admits he wasn’t insulting his sister. From this it can be inferred that he didn’t associate his sister with the term girls, which in one way can be touching because she means more to him than that, but conversely gender is innately part of who we are, and yet the little boy removed that element of power that his sister had, with his words.
Failure to connect Always and self-confidence
Midway through the ad, text appears on the screen that indicates that the self-confidence of girls decreases during puberty, and Always wants to assist in stopping that from happening. Always is trying to shift its image to be one of empowerment for young girls everywhere, but the execution of this attempt is a little confusing and rusty. The Always advertisement touches on the real issues faced by girls and young women when they are addressed in a derogatory way and when their confidence suffers within society, but the advertisement is aiming to show that Always, the company that boasts to make women “feel fresh everyday” can fix that. Like it’s that simple. There is no correlation between Always products and female empowerment. There’s no indication that the tampons and liners supplied by Always are helping girls deal with getting older and handling their low self-esteem issues.
Always is attempting to take on a big issue, and in doing so, overshot its mark entirely. The feminine product industry has constructed an idea of shame and foreboding surrounding periods, yet rather than abandoning messaging like that, it contributes to it further by trying to indicate that tampons can create self-confidence. In the commercial, there’s no indicator of what Always is selling, almost like the product is being hidden and because Always doesn’t own up to what it sells, it’s perpetuating further thoughts of embarrassment and shame about periods and how to handle them. It’s great that Always wants to improve women’s self-esteem, but because the advertisement fails to provide indication of how that task will be accomplished, its ad becomes misleading and even distrustful.
Always is attempting to take on a big issue, and in doing so, overshot its mark entirely. The feminine product industry has constructed an idea of shame and foreboding surrounding periods, yet rather than abandoning messaging like that, it contributes to it further by trying to indicate that tampons can create self-confidence. In the commercial, there’s no indicator of what Always is selling, almost like the product is being hidden and because Always doesn’t own up to what it sells, it’s perpetuating further thoughts of embarrassment and shame about periods and how to handle them. It’s great that Always wants to improve women’s self-esteem, but because the advertisement fails to provide indication of how that task will be accomplished, its ad becomes misleading and even distrustful.