Chances are, you’ve been there: You see a commercial featuring an impossibly beautiful women with bouncy hair and perfect skin. Her clothes fit her just so and the energy of her aura is so sexy, so contagious, that she actually makes heads turn. Maybe she’s holding a burger or praising the shampoo that changed her life. It doesn’t matter—you want to be her. Except she looks nothing like you.
You might not even realize that seeing this kind of imagery over and over can subconsciously affect the way you feel about yourself. But the next time you look in the mirror, you pick yourself apart: Your jeans don’t fit the way they should! Your arms aren’t toned enough! Over time, unrealistic images in advertisements chip away at your self-esteem.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. At WW, we know we can’t carry out our impact manifesto—to inspire healthy habits for real life—if we don’t actually depict reality.
It’s why we joined #SeeHer in August 2018. Like ours, the organization’s mission is to create a ripple of change: They’ve set out to increase the percentage of accurate portrayals of women in U.S. advertising and media by 20 percent by the year 2020, the 100th anniversary of women winning the right to vote.
To help, we’ve pledged to:
· Favorably and accurately present women
· Portray women in a respectful manner
· Show women as good role models for women or girls
· Represent women in a way that consumers would be comfortable seeing their mom or sister in the ad
· Show a woman’s whole self rather than focusing on a specific body part
· Make consumers feel good about themselves
And just so you know: We’re keeping our promises. To stay accountable, we only feature actual WW members in our visuals. We also vet our advertising campaigns using The Gender Equality Measure™ (GEM™) a metric used by marketers, researchers, agencies, networks, and producers throughout the ad and media industries to quantify exactly how people perceive advertising. We over-indexed in our last read of TV commercials, print ads, and WW Workshop room posters—meaning we’re doing our part.
For proof, look no further than our member success stories page, which features inspiring women like Whitney, a WW member and mother of two who has committed to raising her daughters with healthy habits and confidence, and Kendra, a WW member and actor whose wellness journey helped her step into less stereotypical female roles.
As #SeeHer’s motto goes, “if you can see her, you can be her.” And we’re proud to lead the way with realistic depictions of incredible women.
For more information on #SeeHer and its partners, visit SeeHer.com, or follow them on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.