Treat Him Like a Lady

Young Entry Asset
Young Entry Asset

Overview

Credits

Overview

Background

The brief asked for an inspirational integrated campaign using the Turkish Women's national team, aiming towards two goals: increase and encourage girls in sports; contribute to ending gender discrimination. In our opinion the first goal is a problematic aim if the second goal isn't in focus. We believe that promoting a sport for women can do more harm than good if the sport itself harbours ingrained sexist and harmful tendencies. Our research has shown that in volleyball, and female sports in general, there are tendencies like these. Therefore, the priority should be to allocate resources towards creating a better and safer environment within the sport.

Make the sport better for girls to develop and grow, and they are more likely to join, remain engaged, and become ambassadors for the sport in the future. In other words, we believe the secondary goal needs to come first.

Campaign idea

Equality has come a long way in the Olympics with women getting around 50% of primetime screen time every Olympic since London 2012. Yet while the quantity of coverage is in women's favour, the quality is not. Women are 10x more likely to be portrayed in objectifying camera angles; 7x more likely to be referred to using gendered diminutives; 3x more likely to be depicted with a focus on non-sport-related attributes. So, ahead of the 2024 Olympics we want to flip the script to push for change. In a live broadcasted volleyball match between the Turkish men's national team and an opponent, we'll tweak the framework of the broadcast so that the men get the same treatment as the women, based on real data. The cameras will be 10x more visually objectifying, and the commentators will use 7x more gender diminutive language and 3x more descriptions with a focus on non-sport-related attributes. The match will create a platform for the women to talk about gender inequality during the 2024 Olympics. Proving that equality in sports, and society in general, should be measured by more than just a quantitative metric.