Out of all the controversial ads that aired during the Super Bowl, the one that may have spurred the most vocal backlash was the one that promoted gender equality.
The original “Like A Girl” spot, which first aired in June 2014, featured people being asked to throw, run and fight “like a girl.” Instead of simply doing these actions, each person weakly reenacted them, by accidentally dropping the ball or slapping instead of punching. But when the same questions were asked of young girls, they threw, ran and fought aggressively — like anyone would. The implication: To do something “like a girl” is to do it badly, but that negative connotation is something that is only learned over time. Therefore, it’s something we can change.
The campaign received a lot of positive attention when it originally aired, but it wasn’t until Sunday’s shortened Super Bowl ad, which approximately 115 million people watched, that the Internet’s resident haters really found their voices.
After the commercial aired during Sunday night’s Super Bowl, women took to Twitter to describe what they did “like a girl” and how their gender doesn’t stop them from being strong and powerful. #LikeAGirl started trending on Twitter in no time with tweets like these:
I’m proud of jumping #LikeAGirl
