To highlight this divide between male and female sports coverage, we showed people what it would be like if the media asked men the same absurd questions that females have been asked by the media before. By illustrating how ridiculous it would sound if this ever happened, we reminded the public, and the media, that this behaviour is unacceptable. With this idea we hoped to change the media’s approach to professional female sports for the better.

#CoverTheAthlete shows what it would look like if professional male athletes were asked some of the same, real questions, female athletes have been asked recently by the media.

Viewers were then directed to CoverTheAthlete.com where they were given the ability to tweet directly at their local sports stations to demand better coverage using #CoverTheAthlete.

Over 1.5 million views in its first week.

Over 10,000,000 media impressions with $0 spent on media.

Over 10,000 tweets to journalists around the world demanding better coverage using #CoverTheAthlete in just 3 days.

#CoverTheAthlete was named the most controversial video on reddit as the film was hotly debated and extremely polarizing. The comment section was littered with hateful sentiments like “Female sports shouldn't exist.” and “Oh fuck off with this shit, not a real problem…” which only spurred on the supporters even more.

The media’s coverage of female professional sports is often filled with sexist and demeaning, questions and comments. It was time to do something about it.

#CoverTheAthlete brought this problem to the publics attention with a thought provoking video and then gave people the tools they needed to demand better sports coverage from the media.

Instead of just using the video to raise awareness, we gave viewers an outlet to actually do something about it.

The film led to a website that encouraged people to tweet directly at their local sports networks, and the medias worst offenders, to demand better using #CoverTheAthlete which sparked a global debate around sexist sports coverage.

In January 2015, Canadian tennis star Eugenie Bouchard was stepping off the court from an Australian Open victory when Channel 7 reporter Ian Cohen asked her “Could you give us a twirl and tell us about your outfit?”.

At the time, there was no major public outcry. But there should have been.

Professional female athletes are asked these kinds of demeaning and sexist questions all the time, but men are not. It’s hard to imagine someone asking Roger Federer to talk about his outfit right after winning a match.

This wasn’t the first time a professional female athlete was asked an inappropriate question that had nothing to do with her athletic accomplishments and it certainly wasn’t going to be the last unless something was done about it.