The Debenhams diversity campaign featured models of various ages, ethnicities, body types, and some with disabilities. The campaign aimed to reflect Debenhams' diverse customer base and give opportunities to non-traditional models. While likely boosting Debenhams' sales and customer numbers, the campaign also provided exposure for models who may not otherwise break into the industry due to their appearance.

1. Scott Harrand

2. The “This Girl Can” campaign is a series of posters and videos depicting women participating in
various sports and exercises. The posters are combined with often witty or motivational phrases
overlaid on the images. The videos follow a similar format, using many of the same women that
feature in the posters, with many of the same mottos and slogans appearing in the video section of
the campaign that appear in the poster section of the campaign. The campaign aims to promote and
support women who take part in sport and other exercise activities. The campaign reinforces
positive body image by showing a variety of women in all shapes and sizes. This makes the
campaign more appealing to a wider audience as more women can relate to this campaign than if
they had chosen to use women who looked relatively similar, and fit into a certain demographic of
physical appearance. The campaign falls into various purposes for social action campaigning, as it a
rather clear example, for one, of challenging dominant representations and agendas, as it promotes
women of various body types and ages and appearances engaging in activities to keep healthy,
which traditionally women have not been as encouraged in or celebrated in. By extension, this
campaign could be seen as trying to change attitudes. The campaign also, arguably, has the effect
of creating and/or strengthening community ties, especially through the advent of it’s social media
aspect, having created a hashtag through which people can share their own motivational stories
about activities or exercise with others, creating a community tie. The campaign can also be
considered as a campaign that is trying to build a relationship with it’s subjects, as the women used
in the advertisements are a range of women of different ages and appearances. The campaign also
encourages women to share their stories of exercise and activity through the hashtag, which truly
engaged with it’s subject and made them apart of the campaign.

3. The “This Girl Can” campaign, despite having only existed for less than a year, has
been wildly successful. The campaign encouraged women to share their exercise
experiences through the use of the hashtag “#thisgirlcan” which many women have
and continue to do. As evidenced by the many usages of the hashtag, it would seem
that the campaign did have considerable success in their goal of inspiring more
women to get involved in sports and activities, or that many people were at least
aware enough of the campaign to make the usage of the hashtag widespread. The
video for the campaign, less than a year after it’s release, has already gained over 8
million views on Youtube. While it is difficult to quantify the effects of the campaign,
as there is little record of exactly how many women in
in the UK exercise, or how
much that number has
increased in the short time
since the campaign was
launched, it can certainly be
seen that the campaign was
very well known and
widespread.

4. Fundación ANAR is a Spanish organization aiming to protect and support
victims of child abuse. This particular advertising campaign from the
organization is quite unique and innovative, as it makes use of an interesting
visual technique. A person standing at the full height of an average adult will
only see a section of dark text, saying “Sometimes, child abuse is only visible to
the child suffering it”, combined with a picture of a young child. However anyone
standing at about 1.35m, the average height of a ten year old child, will be able
to see bruises appear on the child’s face, with the phone number for the
organization combined with text urging children to call if their parents hurt them.
The campaign was an interesting and innovative technique to use, and it was
shared on various forms of social media. This raises even greater awareness by
infiltrating mainstream media and having the message spread, as well as the
organization’s phone number. The organization themselves had stated that the
advertising campaign going viral had a profoundly positive effect for the
organization, as it lead to the number for the organization being passed around
on a viral level, leading to greater awareness of how to contact the organization.
While going viral may not have been the initial intention of the campaign, it was
indeed the effect, and therefore it can be argued that the campaign infiltrated the
mainstream media, to reach a wider audience of various forms of social media
on the internet. The purpose of the campaign is also to provide information, as
the number of the organization was put on the advertisement (albeit, visible only
to people of a certain height) to inform those who are most likely to need it.

5. According to the organisation themselves, the campaign was especially successful
as a result of having gone viral and having the information spread on a much more
wider scale. They reasoned that this meant that the more people who knew about
the advertisement, the more people who knew about the organization and also how
to contact them, as their phone number was being spread about. The campaign
was certainly seen by a large amount of people, after having been spread on so
many various forms of social media, so it is not unlikely that this may have resulted
in more children who were in need of the information being made aware of it. It is
difficult to find statistics regarding the rates of child abuse in Spain, or of how many
children the organization was able to help after this campaign was launched.
Because of this, there is no quantifiable data to say that this campaign had a drastic
effect, but it does not contradict that possibility either.

6. The Green Party is a political party in New Zealand. This is one
of the many posters and various media used by the party to
promote them to the voting populace. In this particular poster, it
features a young girl standing at the end of a pier, with a vast
body of water behind her. She is looking directly into the
camera, with the words “Vote for me” written in large letters
across her, and the text imploring the audience to vote for the
Green party in smaller, yet no less visible, letters. This campaign
appeals to it’s audience because it asks them to think about the
children, and how their voting may affect
them, with the poster suggesting that their children would have a better future with the Green party in power. The use of
a child in the poster also plays upon people’s sympathies and emotions. The background of the poster is quite an idyllic
scene, with a peaceful lake and soft colours such as whites and blues and purples. The main reason for this campaign
is to change voting behaviour, as it is sending across a strong message to persuade people to vote for the Green party,
as evidence by the secondary set of text on the lower part of the image. Arguably, the poster raises awareness for the
party being advertised, as people who were not initially aware of the party before they saw the campaign may go on to
find out more about the party and further their voting options. Although, this effect does tie in with the effect of changing
voting behaviour. The campaign is also most certainly concerned with bringing about national change, because they are
trying to effect how the nation is ruled by changing who it is that rules it, namely the Green Party, in this situation.

7. This campaign was launched during the 2008 New Zealand election, during
which the Green Party gained considerable success, especially compared to
the previous election in which they managed to lose seats rather than gain. In
the 2008 election, the Green Party did not quite manage to win the election, but
did increase their amount of seats in parliament by a third, and become the
third largest parliamentary party in the country. While the successes of the
Green Party in the 2008 election cannot solely be traced back to the
implementation of this particular campaign, it is likely that the campaign had
some effect on the number of voters, however small.

8. This campaign, produced by the department store Debenhams, aims to promote
diversity in it’s models, and broaden the parameters that define a model. Many of the
models featured in the campaign defy the typical characteristics that models are
generally considered to have, and many of them are of varying ages, ethnicities and
body types, as well as there being a few models with visible disabilities and missing
limbs. Debenhams’s themselves have stated that the campaign was
intended to reflect and celebrate the diversity of their own
customers, who did not all look like the models they were initially
using. The photoshoot has been shot with vibrant colour on the
models and their clothes, with a white background, to draw greater
attention to the models. Generally, it has been shot in a similar way
to any model photoshoot, perhaps to underline the fact that these
models are not perceived as any different. This campaign seems to
be an example of trying to create access to media production for
non-traditional groups, in this case, being models. The models used
are a part of groups that are generally considered not traditional in
the modeling industry, and this campaign gives them a chance they
may not be likely to find elsewhere to break into the industry and get
noticed, which models that more suited the traditional look may find
much less difficult.

9. Arguably, the Debenhams’ Diversity Campaign’s main impact was to promote
sales and customer numbers in Debenhams’ stores. However, despite their
being a marketing slant to the campaign, this does not necessarily negate the
other impacts of the campaign. For example, this campaign allowed for a group
of models who elsewise may not have been as well known in the modelling
industry to have a break into the public eye and make a name for themselves,
aided by the popularity of the Debenhams’ brand. For some of them this could
potentially lead to additional modelling jobs and a successful modelling career,
which may not have been possible if they had not been brought to the public
eye by the campaign. Another potential impact of the campaign is to improve
the self-esteem of the campaign’s audience, which is an impact that is difficult
to quantify, but nonetheless a valuable impact.