Best Feminist Adverts

Feminism has been in the spotlight over the past few years thanks to the #MeToo and #TimesUp movement, and some companies are embracing it in their ads.

We've listed some of our favourite and most relatable feminist ads that will make you feel unstoppable and proud.

Billie

We've all seen those Venus ads where a perfectly groomed woman shaves her HAIR-FREE legs, which adds to the stereotypical unrealistic beauty standards of women needing to be hairless in order to be 'feminine'.

Billie, a female razor company, is one of the first brands to show an advert of women shaving their hair, yes, their real hair! We're talking leg hair, armpit hair, stomach hair, basically the hair on our bodies we all have but feel too embarassed to talk about.

As an Indian, I've always been really hairy and often had guys pointing out how hairy I am, but seeing adverts like this reminds me that it's okay to be hairy! I've even stopped removing the hair on my arms and have grown to love it.

Not only does this brand embrace body hair, but their razors are also half the price of standard female razors which are way more expensive thanks to the 'pink tax' (basically, women's razors are double the price of men's razors even though they're the same type of razor!).

Nike

This Nike ad shows how the passion of sportswomen is often shown in a sexist light, e.g. if a woman throws a tennis racket out of frustration during a match, she's 'emotional', but if a guy did it, he would be 'ambitious'.

This ad is so relatable to so many women, and it ends with Serene Williams telling women to embrace their emotions and show people what 'crazy' can do.

Gilette 

Gilette's ad went viral earlier this year with very split opinions. Many men felt angry about the ad, feeling that it falsely represents men; however, many women loved the ad because they could relate to it, meaning that sadly, men are still oblivious to the sexual harassment that women experience.

Despite Gilette previously promoting the 'macho man' image for so long, it's great to see that they're realising that it's not healthy for both men and women.

Always 

 This ad is so effective in showing how society teaches us gender stereotypes as we grow up. The young girls in this ad are confident in their abilities, but the older participants believe that women 'can't play sports', that they're weak and feeble.

When someone says 'you run like a girl' or 'you throw like a girl', it's an insult. This ad questions why is being 'like a girl' such a bad thing? The young girls in the ad believe in themselves until they're asked 'is like a girl a good thing?', in which girl replies 'it sounds like a bad thing, like you're trying to humiliate someone'. This is how stereotypes begin at young age and why it's important to teach respect for genders, races etc. at a young age.

No7

What better way to create a feminist ad than to cast a feminist activist. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie starts the ad with saying 'our culture teaches us that if women want to be taken seriously, then she's not supposed to care too much about her appearance, so I stopped wearing make-up and hid my high heels, but I became a false version of myself'. She tells us what makeup means to her and how it makes her feel.

To anyone who thinks being feminine and being a feminist are mutually exclusive, Chimamanda just proved you wrong.

 Allure

There is SO much body hair in this ad and I love it! In this campaign, 3 women of different ethnicities debunk beauty myths about body hair and share their stories growing up. One of the girls was called a 'dirty f*cking pig' for not shaving and another was labelled as 'gross' for having arm hair. 

If a woman goes out with body hair, they are viewed as 'disgusting', 'unhygienic' or have 'no self respect'. This ad shows that hair on women is totally normal! 

My favourite thing about this ad is that the women show ALL their body hair in full glory. A lot of us women think we're super hairy and that we're the only one's with an ungodly amount hair, but truth is, we're all pretty darn 'hairy' and it's totally normal.

Bianco Footwear

The message of this campaign is that equal pay for women is not enough as there is still inequality in so many other ways. The ad points out that being a woman is much more expensive (true by the way); our underwear is more expensive, our haircuts are more expensive, so why are women paid less?

The women use their shoes to stand up for themselves, by smashing a glass window to a room in which a 'boys club' is sat laughing, by jumping on a mans car and by kicking a mug into a mans face.

Even though this ad has a powerful underlying message, I feel that they could've shown this in a less aggressive way, I mean, no man or woman should have a mug thrown in their face?