SheKnows Media, a women’s media company with 81 million unique visitors a month and 302 million social media fans and followers, announced the winners of the 2016 #Femvertising Awards, an annual awards program launched in 2015 honoring brands and agencies that challenge unattainable beauty standards and gender stereotypes through pro-female advertising.
This year’s winning #Femvertising Awards campaigns include:
- Dadvertising – a new category for ads that break away from traditional gender roles: Dad-Do by Pantene
- Humor: The Bud Light Party: Equal Pay by Bud Light
- Inspiration: Rule Yourself: Women’s Gymnastics by Under Armour
- Next-Generation: Why Girls Can’t Code by Girls Who Code
- People’s Choice: Red Elephant Foundation
- Social Impact: #WomenNotObjects by Badger & Winters
The campaigns above were ultimately chosen by a high-profile panel of judges hailing from organizations such as The Commission on Gender Equity, Instagram, Ms. Foundation for Women and RAM Trucks, as well as nearly 7,000 votes when the awards program opened to the public in July. SheKnows Media also gave two additional awards as part of this year’s #Femvertising Awards:
Tweens and teens that belong to Hatch, SheKnows Media’s award-winning, cause-driven digital storytelling and media literacy program for kids, selected Organic Valley’s Real Morning Report ad for the Hatch Kids Award.
SheKnows Media executives and editors named General Mills the winner of the Wildfire Award for requiring that women and people of color comprise 50% and 20%, respectively, of the creative departments at the ad agencies it works with.
The 2016 #Femvertising Awards winners were announced at Advertising Week New York during SheKnows Media’s panel on Next-Generation #Femvertising, where it also revealed findings from a new survey on the pro-female ad movement. Top-level findings from the July 2016 survey of nearly 4,000 women and men show a significant disparity between women and men when it comes to the harm ads that objectify women can have: While 97% of women and 90% of men believe ads shape the way society views women, only 65% of men think portraying women as sex symbols is harmful, compared to 90% of women. The survey also showed that a majority of women purchase products from brands whose ads positively portray them.
“We believe that pro-female advertising can have a long-lasting impact on the bottom line while improving social acceptance and empowering women,” said Samantha Skey, president and chief revenue officer, SheKnows Media. “As a women’s media company, we feel it is our responsibility to prove it through proprietary research and by honoring brands that stand by women–both culturally and from a marketing standpoint. Congratulations to the winners of the 2016 #Femvertising Awards, all of which offer proof that pro-female advertising is not only the right thing to do ethically, but is instrumental in building better, more authentic relationships with this all-important consumer group.”
