Despite the best efforts of sports brands, health experts and even the London 2012 Olympics, 2 million fewer women than men exercise regularly in England. These women know the benefits of physical activity, and 75% of them said they’d like to do more. What was stopping them? We discovered a number of barriers – from worrying about sweating to how they look in Lycra – all with a common theme: the fear of being judged. Sport England asked us to stand up to this fear, and get more women exercising regularly with a campaign that the audience themselves would own.

We open on a young woman making her way confidently through a locker room, before adjusting her bikini bottoms with a twang of the elastic. What follows is an endorphin-stirring celebration of women of all sizes and abilities, running, punching, kicking, rowing, throwing and diving like they just don’t care. ‘This Girl Can’ rejects the idealised imagery of women in sports advertising and instead heroes them in their wonderful reality – cellulite and sweaty faces included. The pace of the edit mimics an exercise routine: building up, pausing for breath, continuing to a climax before finally slumping in a shattered heap, all in sync to Missy Elliott’s ‘Get Ur Freak On’.