Always Says “Do it Like a Girl”

This video produced by the personal hygiene brand Always, encourages young girls to break the stigma associated with socially engrained conceptions of doing something “like a girl.” As the video demonstrates, in our popular culture doing something like a girl carries a negative connotation. Young girls must fight back and be proud of doing something like a girl, because as one girl points out “I wake up in the morning like a girl, because I am a girl. And that’s not something I should be ashamed of.”

As we’ve seen there are other companies who have produced similarly positive messages, Goldiblox for girls and Dove for women. Although some might criticize such advertising for wrapping capitalism in a positive message, this seems to be another example of an advertiser trying to do right by doing good. Yes, at the end of the day Always is trying to sell a product by positioning its brand as a champion of women; that’s why they’re spending money on producing the video in the first place. But there’s certainly nothing wrong with communicating a positive message while selling something. What’s the alternative? To produce something like what Ford of India did, or to use someone like Kate Upton to sell your product? Many thanks to Krissy Weidmaier for bringing this video to my attention.