CASE 03 / Always / Procter & Gamble / 2014
#LikeAGirl
Make an invisible social habit visible, then give people a phrase they can reclaim.
Credits: Leo Burnett Toronto, Chicago and London/Holler for Always. Directed by Lauren Greenfield; The One Show lists Chelsea Pictures among the production credits.
Recognition: 2015 One Show Gold Pencil, Brand Transformation / Single. D&AD’s 2015 archive also records a Black Pencil and other awards.
Launch / edition: 2014. Award years: 2015.
The problem. The idea. The experience.
Always wanted to champion girls’ confidence around puberty. The campaign focused on the everyday expression “like a girl.”
How the idea came to life
Participants were asked to run, fight and throw “like a girl”; younger girls received the same prompt. The contrast exposed a learned stereotype and invited a more positive meaning.
How it reached people
D&AD’s case description says the film launched on YouTube with limited paid support, while influencers and more than 20 women’s organizations spread it. The campaign later appeared in the 2015 Super Bowl.
Supporting sources: Primary award entry → Primary award entry → Primary brand source → Campaign archive →
Read the data in context.
The numbers below describe different kinds of outcomes. Their date, scope and reporting source are part of the result.
- Reporting period
- first two months, per entry
- Scope
- campaign view count
- Evidence
- Entrant-reported
The One Show entry reports 76 million global views after two months. D&AD reports more than 85 million global views at a later reporting point. These are separate snapshots, not additive totals.
The creative mechanism.
A familiar phrase + a revealing contrast + a participatory reframe
The audience discovers the tension
A demonstration lets viewers notice the inconsistency before the brand explains it. That creates an emotional turn inside the film rather than relying on a slogan to announce that the subject matters.
The phrase already lived in people’s heads
Reworking familiar language gives an idea a shorter path into conversation. The campaign did not need to teach a new term before people could repeat or challenge it.
Sharing could express a personal stance
Someone could circulate the film to say something about parenting, fairness or their own experience. The social value of the share extended beyond recommending a product.
The issue connected to the category
A brand serving people around a vulnerable life stage has a plausible reason to address confidence there. That relevance matters: borrowing a cause without a durable relationship to it can make the same format feel opportunistic.
The intended behavior loop
- 01Recognize the phrase
- 02See the contrast
- 03Reconsider its meaning
- 04Add a personal example or share
- 05Associate the brand with the issue
Growth job: Cultural relevance → brand meaning → consideration. This is an interpretation of the mechanism, not an audited attribution model.
A direction to take into the room.
Original editorial analysis and proposed adaptation. This is a proposed adaptation, not historical campaign execution or a forecast.
Let willing learners show a skill they once thought was too late to learn, then make the first lesson accessible.
The tension
A familiar phrase can make a learned limitation feel like a fact. Challenging it becomes credible when people see an honest demonstration and can access real support afterward.
The opening hook
Proposed adult-learning prompt: ‘What did you think it was too late to learn?’
Visual direction
Film contributors at eye level in their own learning context. Use their approved words and an uninterrupted view of a bounded task. Let hesitation and effort remain visible rather than cutting a perfect transformation montage.
A three-beat story
- 01
A contributor describes a limiting assumption in their own words.
- 02
They demonstrate a concrete skill and explain what helped them learn it.
- 03
Offer a relevant first lesson with a realistic description of the support available.
Give the audience a useful next move
Try the introductory lesson or explore learner support without pressure to disclose a personal story.
Build for the channel
- Short documentary: Keep enough context to preserve the contributor's meaning and connect the skill to actual support.
- Reading-led article: Publish an approved interview alongside the lesson, learning steps and limitations.
- Social excerpt: Use one approved demonstration with captions and a direct path to the complete story and lesson.
The first idea to test
Does an honest learner demonstration improve qualified lesson starts compared with a generic motivational message?
Measure and protect the idea
Test whether viewers accurately understand the message and associate it with the learning offer. Track qualified lesson starts and completion. Review the substance of audience responses; reaction volume alone cannot show agreement or attitude change.
Obtain informed consent and compensate contributors fairly. Do not stage humiliation or edit testimony to manufacture a conclusion. Involve the affected audience and ensure promised support is available. Avoid presenting a few stories as representative research.
Turn the lesson into a test.
What you can borrow
Find a category-relevant assumption that customers encounter in daily life. Design a fair, consent-based way to reveal it, then offer a useful alternative behavior rather than a purely moralizing message.
What needs a rethink
Avoid staging humiliation or editing testimony to manufacture a conclusion. Work with affected people, compensate contributors fairly and ensure the organization’s actual practices can withstand the message.
Illustrative adaptation, not a historical campaign fact
A small-team experiment
An adult education brand asks willing learners to show one task they once assumed was “too late to learn.” Pair the demonstration with a practical first lesson and real learner support.
Build the test
- Listen for repeated phrases in consented customer interviews.
- Choose one belief the product can genuinely help change.
- Prototype a short demonstration and test comprehension privately.
- Create a useful action that follows the emotional moment.
Measure the right thing
Primary: correct message recall and qualified lesson starts. Secondary: brand association and completion. Review comments for substantive interpretation rather than counting every reaction as support.
Know when to stop
Pause if contributors feel misrepresented, the audience reads the work as self-congratulation, or the promised support is not operational.
How this reading fits your brief
Start with the useful part.
Best for: Cultural relevance → brand meaning → consideration
What to adapt: Find a category-relevant assumption that customers encounter in daily life. Design a fair, consent-based way to reveal it, then offer a useful alternative behavior rather than a purely moralizing message.
Prerequisites: Credible issue relationship; Consented participants; Careful production; Follow-through beyond advertising.
Smaller-team route: Small consented demonstrations can test the belief-reframing mechanism; they do not replicate the original reach.
Budget: Not established by the cited sources. No cost-fit claim is made.
Trade-offs and evidence: Read the limits below before choosing a test. There is no guaranteed reach, sales lift or ROAS.
Questions for your next brief
- Which ordinary phrase contains an unfair assumption in our category?
- What could the audience discover without a voiceover telling them the answer?
- What will our business do after the film ends?
Sources & further reading.
Brand and award-entry results are attributed claims, not independent causal audits. Source links open the original third-party pages.
- The One Show: #LikeAGirl, 2015 Brand Transformation →Primary award entry · Supports: Credits, objective, Gold Pencil and two-month view count.
- D&AD: #LikeAGirl →Primary award entry · Supports: Film mechanic, early distribution, reported later reach and awards.
- P&G: Company History, Always #LikeAGirl milestone →Primary brand source · Supports: 2015 Super Bowl appearance.
- Ads of the World / Clio Network: Like a Girl →Campaign archive · Supports: June 2014 launch.
Independent educational analysis of external campaigns. These are not SNS client projects, endorsements or claims of involvement. Campaign facts and reported outcomes are attributed to their sources. Explanations, adaptations and test plans are original analysis and hypotheses, not proven causal findings.