International Women’s Day (IWD) was on 8th March 2025, with the theme:
“For ALL Women and Girls: Rights. Equality. Empowerment.”
This theme calls for action that can unlock equal rights, power, and opportunities for all and a feminist future where NO ONE is left behind. The central vision here is to empower the next generation, young girls, young women, and adolescent girls as catalysts for lasting change.
“Engage media, corporate leaders, governments, community leaders, civil society and youth, and others with influence to take action in your communities. Ask leaders to take action and invest in promoting women’s rights and gender equality. Share International Women’s Day stories and messages on digital platforms, using the hashtag #ForAllWomenAndGirls to spark dialogue and inspire action.”
The UN.
‘The Monster Who Came to Tea’, by Women’s Aid
Women’s Aid have produced a video and launched a new campaign ‘The Monster Who Came To Tea’, highlighting the real impact domestic abuse has on both women and children.
“We’ve been working with advertising agency House 337, who helped create our ’He’s Coming Home’ film as well as our National Emergency campaign, to produce this powerful film ahead of International Women’s Day. It tells the story of a mother and daughter experiencing domestic abuse, seen through the eyes of a young girl named Lily.”
This campaign film is powerful, haunting, and effective. Inspired by Judith Kerr’s The Tiger Who Came to Tea, this video seeks to raise awareness of the impact domestic abuse has on children. The call to action within this is urging the UK government to allocate proper funding to support survivors.
We are calling on the government to commit to a minimum funding settlement of £516m per annum in England for specialist domestic abuse services, including a ring-fenced fund for ‘by and for’ services.
This campaign hits hard with its emotive narration as well as strong visual and audio execution revealing a clear goal, creating a deeply powerful campaign. It shows abusers for exactly what they are. Monsters. It is clearly well-thought out, putting the next generations at the centre of tackling domestic abuse. I was genuinely left with no notes for improvements.
UN Women UK “Oi! Observe and intervene” by Revolt
So we devised ‘Oi! – Observe & Intervene’ — a powerful campaign designed to challenge and stop sexism in everyday life. Each creative asset highlights a micro-aggression – made massive – that’s challenged by an ‘Oi! Intervention’. All the micro-aggressions featured in the work were overheard by real women on social media, in the street or in the workplace. We used outdoor media, Instagram and LinkedIn to make each asset contextual to where it had been seen or heard.
This campaign included a variety of headlines such as “She’s too emotional to lead” and “women are awful drivers”.
This campaign draws attention to negative stereotypes with a confrontational tone with its use of “OI”. With strategic placement utilising outdoor media as well as social media this campaign reinforces relevance and immediacy. It calls for action by telling people to intervene when observing sexism to help stop sexism, which is directly on theme.
It grabs attention to sexism but doesn’t have a great deal of guidance for helping prevent, or intervene with the sexism women face. It could have provided links to a page on their website with ways to act on what sexism people may witness.
Stepping in can be dangerous and scary for a lot of people, as much as this draws attention to the issue at hand, there should have been something provided to safely handle these situations.
#BarbieLimitlessFriendship by Heart & Barbie®
Barbie® has partnered with Heart, the UK’s biggest commercial radio brand, to celebrate the power of women supporting women in the lead up to International Women’s Day. All this week, Heart listeners have been nominating female role models that inspire them for a chance to have their message shared on air and on billboards, and the chance to win an epic prize.
The hashtag #BarbieLimitlessFriendship invites listeners at home to keep the momentum going, encouraging them to snap selfies with the special women in their lives to commemorate the power of friendship this International Women’s Day!
This campaign utilises public engagement with nominations and a hashtag, alongside messaging broadcasted via radio and billboards across major UK cities. Alongside this Barbie® gave British actresses Hannah Waddingham and Juno Temple their own custom Role Model dolls.
The key messaging was to highlight the importance of friendships, with statistics indicating women with strong female support systems excel with their careers. With featuring of real-life friendships and encouraging public participation this makes for a great campaign.
However, commercialising of the campaign with product promotions and brand partnerships makes me question the integrity of the brands collaborative efforts. In future, being more careful with the balance between advocacy and advertising would enhance the impact of a IWD campaign.
Unfortunately, on Instagram there are currently less than 100 posts under this hashtag. This could be because it was used through stories, but this lowers the lasting impression of the campaign.
Influence, Inc. 