Strava campaign encourages athletes to be ‘unfiltered’
Strava, the social network for athletes, has launched a new campaign which focuses on the unifying quality of sport at a time when social media can distance us from reality.
Strava campaign encourages athletes to be ‘unfiltered’
‘Athletes Unfiltered’ features everyday members of the Strava community sharing the raw, uncurated and often gruelling nature of sport – including images of blisters, injuries, awkward tan lines and filthy hands – as it calls for athletes to celebrate what makes them unique.
Through the film, Strava aims to distance itself from other social networks which breed an unrealistic and ‘filtered’ vision of what it takes to be an athlete, by asking athletes to share unfiltered images of themselves using the tag #AthletesUnfiltered.
It also aims to highlight that sport has a powerful ability to unite different kinds of people “during a divisive time”.
The short film was created by Bafta-nominated production company, Archer's Mark. The hero film will be distributed digitally and be followed by 12 further shorts, highlighting different aspects of the community.
Gareth Nettleton, vice-president of marketing at Strava, said: "There are two key insights that drove the work, both inspired by what's wrong with the world lately. Firstly, we live in a terribly divisive time, and sport connects people across lines you might not expect. It is a positive, unifying force, and we want to shine a light on its power to bring people together.”
“Secondly, Strava is a real, raw, very unfiltered social network. We believe that people all over the world are exhausted by the pressure to always present a perfect, curated self on other social networks. So we wanted to make it very clear that Strava is a place to put it all out there and be yourself. Unity and acceptance – that's what this campaign is about."
