This Girl Can

GCSE Media Studies – Set Product Fact Sheet
This Girl Can advert

(2016)
© Sport England www.thisgirlcan.co.uk/

This Girl Can advert

(2016)
Component 1: Exploring the Media • Soon after the launch of the “This Girl Can”
campaign, Nike released a more motivational
Focus areas: campaign called “Better for it” which also
Media Language portrayed a more ‘real’ side to fitness.
Representation
Consider the codes and conventions
Media Contexts
of media language and how media
language influences meaning:
BACKGROUND CONTEXT
• This Girl Can is a national campaign developed • A central, striking, image that encourages
by Sport England and in conjunction with a the reader to become intrigued to
wide range of partnership organisations. find out more about the advert:
• The purpose of the campaign is to break »» A mid-shot of a woman in her thirties,
down the primary barrier holding women exercising. Unlike many advertising
back from participating in sport – the fear campaigns, this female is not a celebrity.
of judgement. The campaign seeks to target By purposefully avoiding using a sporting
and celebrate ‘active women who are doing legend or an athletic goddess, the campaign
their thing, whatever that may be, no matter is able to target ordinary women of all
how well they do it, no matter how they ages, encouraging them to take part in sport
look or even how red their face gets’. and showing them that they can achieve.
• The campaign is currently funded by »» The lack of celebrity means that the woman
the National Lottery and backed by a in the advert feels familiar. The female in the
government body, Sport England; there image has her hair scraped up into a ponytail,
is no commercial aspect to it at all. she is sweating a lot and her clothes are not
what society would consider fashionable. For
all these reasons, there is a sense that you
PART 1: STARTING POINTS – Media language know someone like her or, in fact, you are her.
Social and Cultural Contexts:
• The dominance of this image suggests she is
the protagonist of this narrative, the ‘hero’
• Sport England carried out a lot of research
according to Vladimir Propp’s character
to figure out why there was such a big
theory. She is heroic because she is embracing
gender gap in sports participation. They
sport; she doesn’t appear to care what anyone
discovered that two million fewer 14-40
thinks and has shed any inhibitions. She is an
year old women than men partake in sport
inspiration to other women as it is obvious from
regularly and they wanted to understand why.
her facial expression that she is really enjoying
• They discovered that: herself and is completely lost in the moment.
»» 13 million women said they would like to • Across the image is what the campaign
participate more in sport and physical activity. itself calls a mantra, “Sweating like a pig,
»» Just over 6 million of these are feeling like a fox.” The campaign has taken
not currently active at all. a derogatory comment, “sweating like a pig”
»» Fear of being judged was the number one and turned it into something more positive.
barrier for most women who felt they were »» Historically it was considered un-ladylike
unable to participate in physical activity. to break into a sweat and, for many women,
• As a result of the campaign, 1.6m women it is still the case. They don’t want to be seen
have started exercising and the number sweating as it makes them red in the face,
of women playing sport and being active is ruins their make-up and makes them feel
increasing faster than the number of men. unattractive. However, this mantra turns
1
this on its head and perhaps suggests that by like the others in this campaign, has a
working out, you are becoming healthier and certain ‘rawness’ to it, focusing on ‘real’
therefore will become more attractive, “like women. There is no glossy finish and it
a fox” - a fox being a young, beautiful lady. doesn’t resemble any of the high-end adverts
• Towards the bottom but still central is the produced by commercial sporting brands.
name of the campaign, or brand logo, “This »» The females are supposed to be seen as
Girl Can”. This is a very positive statement heroic - aspirational role models for the
with connotations of determination. It is readers. Audience members should see
used to reinforce the idea that all women something of themselves in these women,
should exercise and also to convince them bringing their own fear of judgement to
that if they try they can succeed in sport. the forefront and considering whether it is
• If you were unaware of this campaign, the actually an appropriate fear to have when
limited text and unusual image would act like an they see the amount of fun and enjoyment
enigma code (Roland Barthes) for the audience, these women seem to be experiencing.
as we want to find out who this character is and • In addition, the brand name, “This Girl Can”
what the advert means by, “This Girl Can”. uses the noun “girl” as an all-encompassing
• In the top left hand corner of the advert, there is term. It is used to represent (and target)
the hashtag “#thisgirlcan” connecting readers the whole of the female population and
to the campaign’s social media pages, should make them feel included, a force to be
they wish to follow it or find out more, and there reckoned with, a team, a united front.
are logos for the producers of the campaign • When used in the context of sport, “girl”
– Sport England and the Lottery. These are can be thought of as having some negative
much smaller and tucked away so as not to connotations – “throw like a girl” is a common
detract from the visuals. Use of the hashtag will simile used to mock someone who cannot
hopefully connect women with like-minded throw. It plays on the stereotype that girls
others and bring a sense of social cohesion. It can’t do sport. Perhaps then this statement
also allows the print campaign to take readers to is in response to that idea, “This Girl Can”.
the complete YouTube advert, allowing them to • Interestingly though, considering that the
understand the campaign and see more positive campaign is targeting females of all ages,
representations of women enjoying sport. the word “girl” has been used rather than
“woman”. “Girl” is usually associated with
younger females and there is an argument
PART 2: STARTING POINTS – Representation to say that women over a certain age may
Consider the social and cultural significance feel disconnected from this campaign.
of representations of femininity:
• The campaign’s agenda is to encourage women to
participate in physical activities by challenging
the dominant ideology. In order to do this, the
campaign portrays women extremely positively.
• Stereotypically, women have often been thought
of as the weaker sex and often less successful,
particularly where sport is concerned. However,
this advertising campaign is seeking to challenge
these stereotypes and convince women of their
potential. The female in this image is portrayed
from a positive viewpoint: she is represented
as independent, confident and happy. There is a
clear focus on her face, showing an expression
of enjoyment and fun. By selecting such an
image, the producers are seeking to challenge
the sexism and male dominance in sport.
• The processes of selection and production
have been carefully managed. This advert,
2

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What is the purpose of the This Girl Can campaign?

What barriers to participation in sports did research find for women?

GCSE Media Studies – Set Product Fact Sheet

This Girl Can advert

© Sport England www.thisgirlcan.co.uk/

This Girl Can advert

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