In January 2015, FCB Inferno’s This Girl Can rewrote the rule book for active women. They could be jiggly, sweaty and they didn’t have to nail it. More than 2.8 women responded to that incentive. The campaign won more than 45 awards including Grands Prix at Cannes, Eurobest and APG.

Now FCB Inferno and Australian director, Kim Gehrig (through Somesuch. Gehrig is represented in Australia and New Zelaand by Revolver), have teamed up again to support and extend their message for Sport England and its National Lottery sponsor. The same no judgement message applies. But the encouragement is stronger, intensified by Maya Angelou’s high octane 1978 poem, Phenomenal Women.

“It [the poem] is a celebration of women everywhere, creates a strong sense of belonging and inclusivity, while challenging stereotypes,” noted Sharon Jiggins, managing director of FCB Inferno.

In line with this, the new campaign’s reach is broader. Girls Who Can are also older…or younger. And it’s perfectly OK if life makes them take a break from time to time.

Sport England chief executive officer, Jennie Price, commented, “This Girl Can has made a real difference since it launched, with the number of women doing regular physical activity and sport now at an all-time high. But there’s a lot more to do.”

Other personal stories brought to life include that of new mum, Stephanie Outlaw; student kickboxer, Fakhira Mohamad Hassan Mukhtar, and blade-runner Debbie Squance from Plymouth, all of whom show by example how to overcome the worries that can hold women back.

Familiar faces include Alice (“I’m knackered”) and Grace (“Slow but I’m lapping everyone on the couch”) from the original ads.

“Our research showed the dialogue many of us have in our heads about whether we look OK, whether we are good enough, whether we belong here doesn’t go away – we just learn to manage it,” Price added.

“That’s why the reinforcement of seeing women who look like us playing sport and talking honestly about how they feel about it is so powerful. A new message this time is something women don’t usually hear:  it’s OK to take a break, to have a week off, to walk not run. No-one is saying this to us. Few magazines say it; sports brands don’t say it.

“Many of the women we’ve featured talk about stopping, then starting again. It can feel like the hardest thing in the world to return after a few weeks off, when you fear you’ve lost ground or fitness, but we want to surface this as a discussion point, to say it’s normal to take a break, but that needn’t stop you for good.’’

The artwork from the campaign also features personal mantras from featured women, such as Unleash Your Inner Beginner or Take Me as I am or Watch Me As I Go. They speak directly to fears discovered in research, and surrounding worries such as not being good enough, or overcoming stereotypes about what women should or shouldn’t do.

The campaign will again run on prime-time TV, billboards and shopping centre screens, putting images of real women exercising on the national stage with pride. Social media will be used to start a debate about attitudes to female sport and activity.

Women from all over can pledge their support and capture their own This Girl Can mantra image for social media using the web-based mobile app.

Al Young, chief creative officer of FCB Inferno, commented, “We were humbled and immensely proud of the success of the first campaign and of how its legacy lives on. This second brief presented us with a huge challenge, and this time round we have focused on the roller-coaster realities of the relationship with exercise – something that is rarely talked about. We are confident this will help even more girls and women manage their fear of judgement when getting active.”

 Credits:

Agency: FCB Inferno

Managing director: Sharon Jiggins

Chief creative officer: Al Young

Senior copywriter: Martin McAllister

Senior art director: Ben Edwards

Business director: Hollie Loxley

Account director: Isabelle Soskice

Account manager: Alice Poole

Executive planning director: Vicki Holgate

Senior strategist: Laura Coleman

Head of broadcast/producer: Jason Ayers

Production assistant: Hanna Davis

Production Company: Somesuch

Director: Kim Gehrig

Executive producer : Tim Nash

Producer: Lee Groombridge Somesuch

Script writer: Rose Bretecher

Lighting/cameraman: Robbie Ryan

Production designer : Andy Kelly

Editor: Tom Lindsay @ Trim Editing

Casting: Leanne Flinn

Music & sound Design: Soundtree

Post production: Framestore

Client: Sport England

Chief executive officer: Jennie Price

Strategic lead – brand and digital: Kate Dale