Brawny aims for gender inclusivity
- By Sarah Guenther
- Mar 14, 2016
- 2 min read
Brawny has long been advertised as the tough paper towel. Nowhere is this more apparent than in its packaging, which features a traditionally masculine man wearing a plaid shirt, evoking the image of a lumberjack.
The brand recently traded its muscled-man-in-plaid for a more updated look: women in plaid. New ads featuring women were released this week with the hashtag #StrengthHasNoGender. The women featured in the campaign work in fields largely made up of men, such as construction and firefighting.
The paper towel brand launched the campaign on March 8, which is International Women’s Day. International Women’s Day celebrates the achievements women make to society while also advocating for total gender parity. The day has been celebrated around the world since the early ‘90s.
The four women behind the campaign are each featured in a video talking about their lives and the hardships they have overcome to get where they are today. One of the women featured in the campaign is Linda Alvarado, who owns a construction company. Alvarado is one of few female commercial general contractors and is the first Hispanic owner of a major league baseball team.
The move is a strategic one; there have been many campaigns on social media in the last few years that aim to shatter gender stereotypes and show that women can accomplish just as much as men.
Always released a series of videos in 2014 for their #LikeAGirl campaign that asked people to do things “like a girl.” These things included throwing like a girl, running like a girl, and fighting like a girl. The campaign’s purpose is to show that doing something like a girl is not a bad thing, and that girls are strong and competent.
In 2015, Isis Wenger started the hashtag #ILookLikeAnEngineer. Wenger was featured in an ad for OneLogin in which she talked about her job as an engineer at the company. Not long after the ad was released, people on social media began questioning whether she really was an engineer. Wenger immediately fired back and the hashtag was born, which is now used by female engineers across the world to show that there is no typical engineer.
Brawny is now added to the list of companies aiming to challenge gender stereotypes. While some people may not agree with Brawny’s choice to be more gender-inclusive in its packaging, it doesn’t hurt that the company is trying to move away from gender-stereotypical advertising into the 21st century.
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