Girlguiding seeks to modernise
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Watch the new Girlguiding campaign here.
Girlguiding UK has launched a campaign to raise awareness of the image issues facing teenage girls.
The campaign coincides with Girlguiding’s annual Attitude Survey, which aims to highlight the pressure that young girls face to be attractive and ties in with the organisation’s efforts to lobby Government over airbrushed images in advertising.
The annual survey and ad camapaign are part of an ongoing drive to modernise perceptions of Girlguiding.
The campaign includes outdoor ads and an online video ad which highlights some of the “shocking facts” revealed by the Girlguiding survey.
Almost half (48%) of teenage girls would consider a medical procedure to change the way they look and (47%) believe that the pressure to look attractive is the most negative part of being female.
The 40-second ad, which was created by animating 600 still images together in sequence, is launching first online via YouTube but Girlguiding plans to take the campaign on to TV.
It was created by ad agency Creative Orchestra.
Girlguiding launched a petition in August calling for Prime Minister David Cameron to introduce compulsory labelling to distinguish between airbrushed and natural images in advertising.
Leah Parsons, Girlguiding UK’s youth panel Advocate, says: “Our petition to label airbrushed images came out of some of the findings of the Girls Attitudes Survey last year and it is interesting to see further evidence of the pressure on girls and young women reflected in this years’ results.
Readers' comments (7)
Jill Frasi | Tue, 7 Sep 2010 12:01 pm
This is a very important campaign for young teenage girls who are still growing up and feel under pressure to look older than their years with makeup and body enhancements. Let young girls be just that, young girls!
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Christian Hirlemann | Tue, 7 Sep 2010 12:24 pm
The girl guides are doing something really good. I hope they get all the support they need.
The images presented to young women are unrealistic and while many understand that they have been altered these images are affecting their aspirations and self image.
I hope some rules regarding images are implemented soon, something as simple as requiring all pictures to show as a percentage how many of the pixels of the picture have been changed* or if the form of the subject has been changed a link to the original picture could be made available.
In short, women, girls (and men) should be able to see IMMEDIATELY if an image has been changed and to what degree. Ideally they should have access to an unedited version.
* I understand that in many cases there may be changes made to 100% of the pixels for something like brightness or other touch up changes. This may not even change the form of the subject. It is changes to the subject/model that really matter.
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Sheila Richardson | Tue, 7 Sep 2010 1:06 pm
This is such an important issue and I applaud Girlguiding UK in raising the profile.
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Chris Arnold | Tue, 7 Sep 2010 2:49 pm
See the dramatic video on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B46gSvV7fPA
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Anna Konieczny | Tue, 7 Sep 2010 4:43 pm
Agree with all the comments, I wrote a dissertation last year focusing on similar issue within the adults market and altough the results were not as drastic, it is still a burning problem in our society. Big plus for Debenhams for noticing it and the action taken.
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Anonymous | Wed, 8 Sep 2010 1:18 pm
Great stuff but has the girlguiding study been used to augment the organisation towards addressing those results in a form outside of awareness raising of the issues?
I applaud the study and the campaign for airbrushed labelling.
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Anonymous | Thu, 16 Sep 2010 7:48 am
Labelling of airbrushing on advertising is a great way for girls to see that "yes, she may look flawless, but this image has been airbrushed". Kudos to GirlGuides UK for raising this very important issue!
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