Values-driven advertising has never been more important, with brands motivated to demonstrate their activism and appeal to a generation that puts its purchasing power to work for the issues it cares about. This month, marketers put their best ads forward in celebration of both International Women’s Day (IWD) and Women’s History Month. But for some members of the industry, the opportunistic nature of these campaigns could easily miss the mark.

Burns Group
"As an individual committed to gender equity, and a member of an agency team that has produced powerful work for brands participating in Women’s History Month, the “event” of IWD feels hollow to me this year,” said Jo McKinney, CEO at Burns Group, which put together #BiasCorrect, the multiyear viral Slack plug-in and campaign for Catalyst. “The theme of 'embrace equity' seems to assume that equity is something we already have or is something we should willingly accept versus something that is increasingly out of reach and will require a herculean effort to achieve. Women’s rights are more threatened than ever and a brand or corporate message one day or one month out of the year is not a difference maker."
Some say the response on the part of brands runs the risk of resonating with a performative tone.

UM Worldwide
“At times, a great amount of focus is put on how quickly a company can react rather than how deeply they can reflect,” said Kelli Perkins, program manager, diversity, equity and belonging at UM Worldwide. “Brands should ask themselves how they might show up for the women within their own walls, and from there create transformative spaces and strategies so that the power of their culture is felt externally.”
Rising to the challenge
Still, these types of awareness days give marketers an opening to celebrate marginalized and disenfranchised groups, and there were a number of marketers who rose to the challenge for this year’s edition.
“Dove has always been a brand that values women as we truly are and not what society pushes us to be,” said Perkins. “Its latest campaign in partnership with LinkedIn, #BlackHairIsProfessional, is a perfect example of how brands insert their voice into pressing topics, such as what qualifies as good or professional-looking hair. It’s uplifting to see brands like Dove and LinkedIn play a larger role in reshaping societal norms and pushing for overdue legislation.”

Cactus
Dove hit the mark with a second campaign on TikTok with #TurnYourBack, "launched in response to the staggering statistic that 77% of teen girls use some type of filter or another form of photo retouching before posting a photo on social media, and 54% of girls prefer the way they look when their photos are edited," said Stacey Trunnell, brand strategy director at Cactus. "Since the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty launched nearly 20 years ago, they’ve clearly tied their purpose to helping improve self-esteem in women and girls—not just one day a year, but all the time.”