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The thought-provoking women's ads from The Chip Shop Awards 2019

By Emma Mulcahy, Staff writer

June 4, 2019 | 6 min read

Ahead of The Chip Shop Awards 2019, The Drum rounds-up the standout examples of female-centric advertising that are up for nomination this year.

Breast Cancer Awareness, Gillette Venus, International Women's Day

Breast Cancer Awareness, Gillette Venus, International Women's Day

Renowned for celebrating creativity without limits, the Chip Shop Awards' reputation for encouraging thinking outside-the-box precedes it. That quality has this year attracted some of the most creative and subversive campaign submissions around marketing to women.

In the real world, some big league brands are changing their tone on marketing to women in a move labeled “femvertising” by Katie Martell. But, of course, the Chip Shop Awards imagines a world where more brands are bolder in their advertising.

Here The Drum highlights some of the most thought-provoking examples of women's advertising that have been submitted to The Chip Shop Awards this year, crediting the agencies at the helm of these would-be campaigns.

Best Use of Honesty

Our first submission in this category comes from the creatives at BBD Perfect Storm and challenges the tampon tax that still pervades the women's health industry.

Tampax: 'Taking the tax out of periods'

This creative spot looks to physically take the ‘tax’ out of ‘Tampax’, by removing the letters from the word. The product is rebranded as ‘Amp’. This is a simple, yet clever way of drawing attention to the issue of the tampon tax, making all purchasers aware of its controversial existence.

The Drum has previously featured campaigns by alternative female sanitary product brands that highlight the societal problems associated with the tampon tax.

Another contender for this category comes from the agency Jack & Ben in a humorous campaign designed for Bravissimo, a lingerie retailer that caters to fuller-busted women.

Bravissimo: 'When lie gives you melons...'

Taking its own spin on the “When life gives you lemons…” adage, the agency creatively changed the copy to “When life gives you melons…” This tagline conveys the brand’s innate sense of humor in the wordplay, but it also encapsulates the general mood of dismay experienced by women shopping for underwear in larger sizes. It encourages women to make the most of what nature has given them, rather than bemoan the size of their boobs.

The next nominee in the category for Best Use of Honesty is bandstand. This agency is up for an award for its excellent brand activation ‘City of Equality’.

City of equality

The creative campaign was put together for International Women’s Day 2019 and looked to draw attention to the persistent gender divide that exists in creative industries. Currently, men make up to 71% of creative departments in the ad industry which signals a huge lack of female representation in these industries. To highlight these issues, bandstand took to heart of London's ad land, Soho, and renamed half of the masculine stret names with their female counterparts. Kingly Street, for example, became Queenly Street. This simple activation served to highlight the gender gap in creative industries in a subtle, yet effective manner and promote a more level playing field.

Yet another contender in this category is creative agency Andrea Sarnataro and Silvia Cutrera, and its campaign for razor brand Gillette Venus.

Gillette Venus: 'The Butterfly'

Changing tack on the female marketing strategy, creatives at this agency decided to champion the case of women who, unpressured by patriarchy, actually prefer to shave. The ad features an image of a moth with a patch shaved out of its hairy exterior to reveal a bright blue butterfly wing beneath. It celebrates the simplicity of shaving, devoid of the modern obsession with political correctness and accusations of sexism.

It is an attention-grabbing ad but the message behind the creative does not align itself with the current values the Gillette brand purports to uphold. The shaving brand has ventured into cause marketing and attempts to tackle a culture of toxic masculinity. It is this culture that has compelled women to shave in order to be desirable. The ad’s transformation of the moth into a butterfly is an image that underlines this belief.

Best Charity

Our nomination in the category for Best Charity comes from creative agency DigitasLBi UK with Breast Cancer Awareness as the imagined client.

Breast Cancer Awareness: Red onions

The ad reflects on the anti-carcinogenic properties latent in red onions while using the image of a red onion to represent a breast. The spot reiterates essential information to viewers while remaining visually impacting and creative.

The Chip Shop Awards will take place on June 6 at the Ministry of Sound, London. Tickets can be purchased now for the awards show. Come along and check out who's creating the best in unadulatered, original content.

The Drum Awards Creative Works The Drum Chip Shop Awards

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