Hasta La Creative!

In case you missed it, “The Queen of Versailles” was one of the better documentaries released in recent years. Today its director Lauren Greenfield teamed up with Leo Burnett Chicago, Toronto and London (along with help from fellow Publicis shops Starcom MediaVest and MSL Group on PR) to launch a campaign addressing an age-old question: what does the phrase “like a girl” really mean? And why do we still use it?

The agencies involved frame the campaign as a “new social experiment” beginning with a survey that reported some unsurprising findings:

• A majority of girls see a drop in confidence around puberty
• Most think of “like a girl” as a general insult, particularly at that age

There’s a social media/UGC component to the campaign, too: the brand will use its various platforms to encourage young female followers to “join the movement and share what they proudly do #LikeAGirl” via pics and videos.

Unlike “Ban Bossy” and various anti-bullying efforts, this one doesn’t purport to have a specific goal; we take it as evidence that businesses and their agencies are learning. The message is nothing if not on-brand, and this documentary-style spot is more intimate and convincing for not involving Beyonce.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Lawyers for Michael Egan, who had accused various Hollywood executives and filmmakers of sexual abuse, dropped a suit against Garth Ancier.

In a memorable scene from The Sandlot—which you must watch if you were somehow nowhere near VHS tapes and a VCR in the early ’90s—baseball players hurl a slew of insults hurl back and forth. One player blurts out the unthinkable. “You play ball like a girl!”

What does that mean, anyway? In a social experiment led by documentarian Lauren Greenmarker, the Procter & Gamble feminine products brand Always asks that question, and declares its mission to redefine the phrase “like a girl” as an expression of strength.

The video—inspired by a study from Research Now, sponsored by Always, that found more than half of the girls surveyed claimed to experience a drop in confidence at puberty—starts off by asking a variety of people to act out phrases like “Run like a girl” and “Fight like a girl.” As you might guess, there’s a lot of exaggerated limp arm movements and goofy facial expressions. Then they ask the same question to a group of young girls. I felt a swell of pride—as if I were their parent, maybe—as I watched them dart across the screen with purpose and power.

There’s great discussion (“Why can’t ‘run like a girl’ also mean ‘win the race’?”), and I like this shift from social experiments about beauty (how many times am I going to mention the Dove campaign? At least once more) to one about empowerment.

Ayaka Ito est une graphiste et illustratrice japonaise basée à New York. Elle crée l’identité de marques, mais réalise surtout des illustrations pour différents produits dont de magnifiques foulards. L’artiste utilise un soupçon de magie dans chacune de ces illustrations et maîtrise parfaitement les jeux de couleurs.

The state of California, the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Senate are all breathing down the ad industry’s neck about mobile data privacy. Today, its biggest privacy self-regulatory group is responding. The Digital Advertising Alliance will unveil its mobile ad privacy app today at its annual summit in San Francisco, opening it up to evaluation by its ad-network, agency and brand participants.

Put simply, the app will let people opt-out from receiving mobile ads targeted based on the apps they interact with.

When available for free download by consumers later this year, the DAA AppChoices app will act similarly to the organization’s current privacy program, which allows people to opt-out from online behavioral ad targeting, signaled by a tiny triangular blue icon in the corner of digital ads.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

(TrendHunter.com) This hauntingly beautiful Japan photo series takes a very sensual approach to capturing Japanese women. Looking more like art than photography, the ‘Tales from Japan’ series is captured…