Our campaign had two strands.

The first was a 90” film celebrating a century of progress by juxtaposing what, 100 years ago, women couldn’t do, with imagery of them doing those things.

The film repeatedly tells women ‘you can’t…’ and blends the serious with the light (such as, ‘you can’t buy your own place’ vs ‘you can’t cuss’) to expose how numerous and broad past inequalities were.

It blends archive footage and stills of real women defying inequalities with bespoke shot footage. And the script is rhythmical with a forthright, determined tone.

It ends with rallying cry for more change by listing modern gender issues as hashtags, like #metoo..

The second strand involved asking three 100-year-old women to introduce our programming for a week, during Channel 4 ad breaks. Millie, Beattie and Margaret reminded the nation of the century’s progress, and talked about change that still needs to happen.

The activity ran for a week and started a few days before the anniversary of UK women’s right to vote (6th February).

The film ran across on air, All 4 and social, while being adapted to best fit with those platforms – for example, the social trail was edited to a portrait format and subtitles were added to enhance Facebook viewing.

The 90” and cutdowns were seen by 17.6 million people (30% of the UK population) and each person saw a trail an average of 2.5 times. On All 4, the films made 435k impressions, reaching 284k people at least twice. And on social, the film reached 3.8 million people on Facebook and achieved 1.3 million Twitter impressions.

Whilst our 100-year-olds’ programme introductions reached over 12 million on air viewers, and more on social.

Awareness was on a par with campaigns of similar scale (30% of 16-34 adults).

The campaign resonated with viewers of all ages and genders, as research confirmed:

‘I LOVED the advert’

- Male 25-34

‘ It really made you think’

- Female, 16-24

Some resolved to continue to fight for equality:

‘This is a moment to…renew efforts on where we go next’

- Facebook user

While 26 members of UK Parliament tweeted the film:

‘This is awesome; utter pride…Well done @Channel4’

- Alison Thewliss, Scottish National Party

Many people commended Channel 4 for bringing the issue to a mainstream audience in an accessible way, while 59% viewers saw Channel 4 as the ‘leading broadcaster for raising awareness of social issues’, delivering on Channel 4’s remit.

‘Why aren't other channels celebrating women in this way? … It's something people need to be made aware of’

Male, 35-44