The Ad Council: advert-body-1 by McCann

The Ad Council has teamed with GE, Google, IBM, Microsoft and Verizon to launch ‘She Can STEM,’ a campaign to encourage girls to pursue their interests in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), and it has plenty of star power attached to get girls ages 11-15 excited about STEM programs, from both the professional and tween fronts.

The national public service campaign includes digital and social creative content, as well as television, print and out-of-home advertising that showcases the achievements of female STEM role models to reinforce the idea that STEM is cool, unexpected and inspiring.

Three 30-second spots capture the essence of the campaign, showing three successful women talking about their respective jobs with a group of girls. Tiera Fletcher, structural analysis engineer at Boeing, wows the girls by showing them the equipment that will eventually launch people to Mars. In another, Lucianne Walkowicz, astronomer at the Adler Planetarium, helps the girls realize that they can go to the stars and possibly find life past earth. A third features Bonnie Ross, head of Microsoft Halo Game Studio, teaching that with technology, these girls can make amazing worlds. One girl even comments, “I want your job,” to which Ross replies, “I want you to have my job.” Others featured in upcoming PSAs include Lisa Seacat DeLuca, distinguished engineer at IBM; Maya Gupta, research scientist at Google; Danielle Merfeld, chief technology officer at GE Renewable Energy; and Nicki Palmer, chief network engineering officer at Verizon.

The campaign will be activated by media partners and platforms, including Facebook, Google, MTV, storytelling platform Playbuzz and Twitter, with an impressive assembly of talent, including popular digital talent Karina “Slime Queen” Garcia, Sara Dietschy and the GEM Sisters Giselle, (15), Evangeline (10), and Mercedes (11), content creator Kamri Noel, actor Jenna Ortega, actor Riele Downs, actor Reiya Downs, Disney star Olivia Rodrigo, actor Lidya Jewett, actor and content creator Tessa Netting, 15-year-old astronaut-in-training Alyssa Carson and Mari Takahashi from Smosh Games.

The campaign directs audiences to @SheCanSTEM on Instagram, where girls can find campaign content featuring STEM role models, complete with resources from partners and nonprofits. Additionally, the campaign website, SheCanSTEM.com, engages parents, teachers, organizations, nonprofits, and others influential in girls’ lives. The site includes information about the campaign, resources from partners and nonprofits, and other information to help girls get involved in and stay in STEM.