We’ve all felt the sparks from campaigns like Dove’s Campaign For Real Beauty and Always’s Like A Girl. Now there’s a new force on the block – Cacique’s #ImNoAngel campaign. Launched last Monday, Lane Bryant’s intimate apparel line Cacique launched their multiplatform campaign and the #ImNoAngel images spread into social feeds everywhere. And like the campaigns that came before them, it’s been social click-bait in all the great ways. It drives conversation both online and offline, and in a photo-shopped obsessed culture, it gives power to the real images of women everywhere.
First, I love campaigns with an attitude. Strong brands have to be unafraid to draw a line in the sand and say this is where I stand, critics are welcome to get in line. Brands can stand for way more than shiny images and slick videos.
But more importantly, I love how the democracy of social media empowers women to stand up and speak out so loudly the media powers-that-be listen and change. There are many articles about how the internet age has stolen power back from the traditional gatekeepers and redistributed it to the people. One group I’ve seen become a dominant force in the social landscape is women. In May 2013, 74% of women were users of social networking sites, compared with 62% of men.
And with that power, they’re protesting loudly against the status quo and turning into change.
Girl, Where you Been?!
First, YouTube celeb Grace Helbig debuted her E! late night show April 3 to small, but growing ratings. She stands as one of the few women in this male-dominated space. We all know late night is headlined by white men, in suits, at desks. According to the Guardian, only two exceptions Joan Rivers in 1986 and Chelsea Handler who did seven years on E!. (They forgot The Mo’Nique show‘s two years, but different battle against the status quo I suppose.)
Grace enters the fold with the tested power of social behind her. She has 2M subscribers on YouTube, 1M on Twitter and 1M on Instagram. Before entertainment executives, based only on prior ratings and/or gut, could bypass women up for their own comedy shows, now the social evidence screams “I’ll bring you ratings.”
**An important aside: Yes, I know Amy Schumer also has a late night show and a hilarious video out promoting her new season. You should check that out too: Milk Milk Lemonade
#EffYourBeautyStandards
Second, we have to give many girl power salutes to Pitch Perfect‘s Rebel Wilson and Anna Kendrick. During the MTV Movie Awards April 12, Rebel crashed onto the stage adorned in Victoria Secret-like angel wings and a bedazzled bustier. She told the press her wings were in protest of the models usually chosen to wear them. She said, to the victory of girls everywhere, “I think one of the messages is that we are all beautiful and sometimes girls look at Victoria’s Secret models and think to model themselves after that. I really don’t think that is the best.” She sealed the look with “Think” instead of “Pink” emblazoned across her butt to encourage others to think through their standards of beauty.
Anna, while shooting Pitch Perfect‘s key art, refused to strike a sexy pose saying her character Beca Mitchell would never do that. In her Instagram, she lightly mentioned the studio heads were not pleased. Of course, this spiraled into girl power folklore and become the ultimate protest #BossPitch. Girls and women throughout the social interwebs posted their very own #bosspitch poses and the media totally jumped on this proclaiming Anna Kendrick launched the next social media movement.
