We created a video showing real women sarcastically speaking about ads in which women are objectified and demonstrated the significant harm it causes. At the end of the video, we asked people all over the world to stand up for the ones they love and to hold the advertising industry to a higher, more just standard. To further activate the movement, we created collateral—including small branded stickers—so that women could react to objectifying advertising in real-time.

As part of an effort to promote the #WomenNotObjects movement across the country, we created our #WomenNotObjects branded pins and stickers to be first distributed at a pop-up at the SXSW festival in Austin, TX. We also sent them as part of a direct mail #WNO Ambassador effort in order to reach a wider demographic.

User-generated photos and videos on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, showed our stickers plastered on objectifying ads across the country, including subway stations, bus stops, and wild postings.

The purpose of the #WomenNotObjects campaign was to forge direct engagement with broad and diverse audiences, from everyday young men and women to older generations. Our challenge was to get an audience to pay attention to an industry-wide practice that had been long overlooked and accepted as the standard. In using smaller media, included branded pins and stickers, we succeeded in giving people the tools to participate in the movement.

After releasing our video online, we observed that many women and men were calling out ads that objectified women. They were posting and sharing ads digitally, but we wanted to give them something physical with which they could react to objectifying ads in real-time and in real life.

Studies prove the objectification of women in advertising has greatly increased since the ‘80s. Over the years, society has become desensitized to objectification and the widespread harm it causes, an epidemic that is harming women physically, mentally and emotionally. Young girls are growing up thinking that how they look is more important than how they feel, what they have to say and what they can do. As one of the few female-led creative agencies in the business, we set out to change the conversation by creating a video exposing the extent to which women are objectified in advertising using real-life examples. Our goal was to remind the world that we are #WomenNotObjects and to change how we portray and speak to women in advertising by asking people to stand up against it.