When Pantene's "Labels Against Women" commercial aired in the Philippines, no one expected it to receive the amount of attention it did. What started out as a simple ad created in response to a gender bias study done in the Philippines, went viral after Sheryl Sandberg promoted the video on Facebook, making it clear that the stereotypes in the ad resonate with women all over the world. If it didn't show up in your news feed, you might be seeing it on your television soon because Procter & Gamble have begun purchasing ad space for it in the U.S.
The message was to showcase how men and women are sometimes perceived differently and it encouraged women to not limit themselves by these labels.
What I found interesting though is that this type of brand story line is not a one-time thing, there actually seems to be a trend here. From the Pantene ad, to the Bing "Celebrating Heroic Women" ad, to the GoldieBlox Inc. ad being named as one of the years best in the WSJ's annual survey of marketing executives. It's clear that feminism was a major theme for the year. Women were not only finding themselves in the spotlight more than usual, but also garnering a lot of support from the public.
What do you think? Will the trend continue through 2014?
