This Girl Can returns with advert showing a tampon string and women are loving it
The campaign by Sport England is encouraging women to get active and enjoy sport
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Your support makes all the difference.This Girl Can has released a new advert showing a diverse range of women with different body shapes and sizes doing sport to celebrate five years of the campaign.
This Girl Can was developed by Sport England to promote sport and activity among women, airing its first television advert in January 2015.
The latest advert was shared on Tuesday, showing women doing a range of sports including rock climbing, swimming, yoga, weightlifting and netball.
In one scene a daughter is seen encouraging her mum to exercise together. In another, a breastfeeding mother is seen going to play a netball match, and another shows a woman on her period with a visible tampon string.
The video is captioned: “No one gets to choose how you exercise other than you. Your body, your call. And whatever that looks like, we think it’s worth celebrating."
Women on social media have praised the advert for showing the reality of exercise for many women. One said: “Having started my period today, I’m particularly enjoying the new advert.”
Another said: “This is real perfection. God I love sport.”
“The tampon string…an actual tampon string in an advert!” said another.
“Lordy is that a tampon string at the end, amazing,” added one. Celebrities including Jameela Jamil and Caitlin Moran have also tweeted their support for the advert.
The advert aims to encourage the 39 per cent of women who currently aren’t active, according to a YouGov study of 2,000 women in England, to do sport.
A recent This Girl Can survey found that a quarter (24 per cent) of women who follow fitness "influencers" on social media said they make them feel bad about themselves.
Women said they would feel better if images of exercise included no make-up, sweating, and discussing how they overcome challenges to keep active.
Lisa O’Keefe, director of insight at Sport England, said: “This Girl Can is about helping women feel confident, so they can overcome the fears about being judged that our research showed was stopping many from getting active.
“Since we launched five years ago, we’re seeing more relatable images in advertising and social media, but there’s still a long way to go until women’s lives are being shown in a realistic way.”
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