A Critical Analysis of Nike: This is Us, as an Example of Femvertising

In contemporary times, advocating gender equality is seen as one of the marketing strategies of various brands. In relation to that, streotypical and normative femininities and masculinities are under scrutiny. By choosing advertisement campaigns focused on women, brands are underlining the issue of gender equality hence, mainstreamising gender equality discourse in society. The rising popularity of feminism and criticisms towards sexism lead the advertisement sector to take a stand in that matter. The mainstreamisation of feminist demands starting from Western Europe and North America that spread throughout the World motivated the advertising sector to adopt feminist friendly marketing strategies. The trend that is named as femvertising could be summeries as the advertisement contents that include gender representation and messages beyond the stereotypical and normative femininities and masculinities. This article analyses one of the examples of femvirtising, NIKE's THIS IS US advertisement campaign, employing semiotics. As a result of this analysis, it could be stated that the gender roles that are attributed to women are under challenge. This particular advertisement text provides non-streotypical and non-normative representations of women, however, while doing this some of the roles and attitudes attributed to women and womenhood are excluded and despised.