The video begins with the camera following a woman walking through a changing room towards a swimming pool. An upbeat, violin-based music track starts and continues throughout the video.
There’s then a quick transition of several different shots: a woman jogging on a country path; a close-up of a woman on a stationary bike; back to the woman walking towards the pool; and a netball player catching the ball and looking at the camera.
A female voiceover says: “To have a campaign that was representative, there was a definite energy about it.”
A second female voiceover says: “It was such a radical departure from anything that we as an organisation had done before.”
During these voiceovers, more quickly transitioning shots of women being active are shown: on a rowing machine; walking towards the pool; in dance fitness classes; sprinting down a street; kicking a football; celebrating on a netball court.
The first voiceover says: “I had to realise this wasn’t a usual campaign.” There are more shots of netballers in action, a woman boxing, a woman wearing earphones while exercising and a woman diving into a pool.
A third female voiceover says: “As a motivation, you know, This Girl Can – I was thinking ‘well, why am I not?’” The logos of This Girl Can, Sport England and The National Lottery, plus #thisgirlcan, appear over a shot of a woman swimming underwater after diving in.
The same woman running through the country park is shown as the second voiceover continues: “It blows my mind what This Girl Can has achieved and to have been part of that. When I go out and tell people about what I do, I always get told stories of the impact it’s had on them or their daughters or their mother or their family.”
During these words, we see a woman pulling on jogging pants is shown, before she stretches on a yoga mat; there’s then a woman wearing a This Girl Can jumper with a squash racquet playing with a young girl on a court.
The owner of the second voiceover, Sport England’s director of marketing Kate Dale, appears on screen and continues talking to camera.
She says: “Sport England data showed that there was a real long-term, sustained gap in participation between men and women.
“So it was driven by data and insight that showed that no matter what we did, there was about, at its highest, between 1.75 and 2 million women who we just weren’t reaching, and that was despite Sport England investing National Lottery money into all sorts of brilliant programmes.”
As Kate speaks, we see scenes of women in swimming pools, fencing, kicking a football, playing tennis, jogging in a park and boxing.
Kate continues: “And so we recognised that we had to do something different. And that’s where doing the idea of a campaign that spoke to how women were feeling came from.”
As she says these words, we see some of the campaign marketing videos, along with overlaid mantras. There’s the woman jogging on a country path from the start of the video, with the text ‘I jiggle, therefore I am’. We then see a woman jumping into open water and then a woman in a dance fitness class, with the text ‘Sweating like a pig, feeling like a fox’.
Kate continues: “The tone of voice of it, the images that we shared – it’s quite jocular, it’s quite jokey, it’s irreverent.”
We see a young woman kicking a football with the mantra ‘I kick balls. Deal with it’.
Another voiceover says: “Ten years or so ago I was working as part of the public health team in partnership with the sport and leisure teams.”
As she’s speaking, there’s another shot of women in a dance fitness class, a woman swimming with goggles on.
The speaker – the Active Wellbeing Society’s community delivery and development manager, Megan Smith – appears on screen. She continues: “And I think my first kind of memories were then delivering some activities at the leisure centres that were funded through This Girl Can.”
The squash players appear on screen again, along with an underwater shot of a swimmer, a netball game and a football game.
Megan continues: “The campaign was very much kind of front and centre in my world about re-engaging myself back into activity.
“This was the first campaign I remember that was really motivating. It was a catalyst for us to step behind and use as a way to kind of pave the way for re-engaging women, or engaging new women into sport and physical activity.”
As Megan is talking, we see shots of a woman jogging on a street and then collapsing onto a sofa at the end of her run, followed by close-ups of women talking and smiling, in a swimming pool changing room and then the pool itself.
Over footage of another dance fitness class, a new voiceover says: “The first time I heard about This Girl Can was in school.”
The speaker – Active Together insight officer Jess Hazell – appears on screen. She continues: “I think that’s when all of the hard-hitting media came out, all these amazing videos and YouTube clips, with the straplines that I think were quite brave in their approach.”
We see mock-ups of pages on websites with the headlines ‘This Girl Can – what about you?’, ‘Case study: How This Girl Can got 1.6 million women exercising’, ‘This Girl Can: Sport England campaign ‘changing behaviour’’, ‘This Girl Can 10 years on: inside the campaign still paving the way for women in sport’, and ‘Why This Girl Can is our favourite ad of 2015’.
More of the campaign adverts, this time still images, are also shown in quick succession:
- A boxer with the text: 'Under these gloves is a beautiful manicure.'
- A woman in a fitness class with the text: 'Sweating like a pig, feeling like a fox.'
- An open water swimmer with the text: 'Full-time Mum. Part-time Mermaid.'
- A young woman kicking a football in an alleyway with the text: 'I also know the offside rule.'
- A woman holding a rounders bat with the text: 'Left school. Never left games.'
Megan continues: “We have a bi-annual survey that goes out called our Physical Activity and Wellbeing Resident Survey and we have a question in there about campaigns.
”And it lists all of these national and local campaigns and it asks people to comment on their awareness of them. And every single time This Girl Can comes out on top. It’s still going 10 years later.”
As she’s talking, we see a weightlifter, an older woman jogging on the spot, a football match, a group of open water swimmers, a woman on a stationary bike with the overlaid text ‘Damn right I look hot’, a woman wearing earphones while exercising, a dance fitness class and a netball team dancing on court.
The country path jogger, a squash player and another woman are shown pausing for breath, followed by the swimmer heading to the pool as the music comes in more loudly.
We see a split screen of Megan looking at the camera and the country path jogger running. Megan says: “You see, I remember this bit because it’s when you started to sit back and take notice.”
There’s a woman cycling energetically on a stationary bike and a boxer sparring, followed by a split screen of Kate Dale and the swimmer heading to the pool.
Kate says: “I love this opening shot. I think, and so many women told me, it was that knicker snap, which is something that we all do.”
Kate speaks to camera: “It’s everyday women, so it’s not like you can be incredibly prescriptive when you go on set, so our brilliant director, Kim, had to kind of work with them to get and coax the performances out of them.”
While she talks, there are shots of a women punching a punch bag in a boxing gym, a woman running outside, straight at the camera.
A woman runs outside, away from the camera, with the mantra ‘I jiggle, therefore I am’ across the screen.
A woman with Down’s syndrome makes finger guns at the camera while in a swimming pool, smiling.
A woman dances in a class.
A woman dives into a pool.
Megan Smith speaks to camera: “Every type of sport as well, not just focusing on one, it was every different activity.”
The screen is cut in half with the talking head and a group women playing netball on the other half.
It cuts to women dancing in a class, a woman jumping into a lido, a woman falling (while harnessed) from a climbing wall, another woman landing inside a swimming pool (shot from below the water line), women in a huddle playing netball, more women dancing in a class.
Kate Dale speaks to camera: “To invest in a marketing campaign rather than building more facilities, it took quite a lot of explaining.
“It sort of felt bold but it didn’t because we had the insight in listening to our women who we’re trying to reach and who we’re trying to target has always been the underpinning principle of This Girl Can. Go where the women are. What do they need?”
While Kate talks, the video cuts to a woman putting a swimming hat on in a changing room, a woman from Black Girls Do Run UK walks down stairs outside, on her phone, at night, a group of Muslim women fence, a group of black women warm up in a park, girls play in skateboards in a skate park.
Nilam Khan, run leader at Loughborough Female Fitness, speaks to camera: “There are lots of benefits from being physically active of course – enjoying the outdoors, keeping your bodies and yourselves fit.
“The This Girl Can campaign has been really helpful in the sense that there’s more awareness, we feel, in the community and there’s a lot more support within the communities for female-only sessions.”
While Nilam speaks, outside, a group of women warm up on some green space in a housing estate behind her.
Nilam continues to speak while the video cuts to a Muslim woman taking off her fencing head guard; the group of women fencing before drills in an exercise studio.
The video cuts back to the group of women behind Nilam and a member of the groups speaks in a voiceover, while the video shows her walking using walking poles, along a pavement, with other women around her.
Val Yeboah, member of Loughborough Female Fitness, says: “I’m officially the oldest member of Loughborough Female Fitness. It’s really good for me, mentally as well as physically. They encourage any woman to get fitter and to keep active, which is wonderful.”
Val speaks to camera briefly, before the video cuts to women playing squash, some wearing ‘Lboro Girls Can’ t-shirts and sweatshirts.
Pauline Young, lead coach for Charnwood squash and racquetball club, speaks to camera: “I think also, though, that sport is a way of feeling better. It is just about saying you can do it.”
The video cuts back to women playing squash.
Krista Cronshaw, participant at Charnwood squash and racquetball club, speaks to camera on a squash court: “I’ve got two young boys. They’re currently nine and seven, so I thought it’s only fair that I show them that, you know, mum could do everything else that they’re doing. That sport isn’t just a boy thing.”
The video cuts to a member of Black Girls Do Run UK, running in a park, before a girl skates in a skatepark.
Kate Dale speaks to camera: “This Girl Can is entirely National Lottery-funded. So, if you ever bought a ticket, thank you, you helped make it happen. This Girl Can has never worked without its partners, without all of you coming and helping us. The next five years we’ve got so much to do together. If we really want to make sure that no woman is left behind, if we want to bring in those under-represented groups.
“So please, head to our website, get involved, sign up to our mailing list. We’ve got so much more to tell you about over the coming months.”
The video cuts to a smiling woman in a swimming pool, a woman with boxing gloves on pretending to spar with the camera, and another woman with boxing straps on her hands shadow boxes in a ring, before punching a punch bag.
A woman falls (while harnessed) from a climbing wall before a woman falls into a swimming pool (shot from below the water line).
A woman plays a squash shot and puts her hand up against the glass wall, behind which is the camera. A woman rides an exercise bike in a gym. Black Girls Do Run UK group run in a park.
Older women dance in a dance studio, a disabled woman swims in a pool, a woman deadlifts a barbell, more women dance in a studio, women play netball, a woman wearing earphones looks tired in the gym, a woman runs outside, women take part in a spin class.
The screen fades to black, with a woman diving into a pool and swimming towards the camera in the background, while the Sport England, This Girl Can and The National Lottery logos, in white, appear on the black background.
