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This Girl Can

“This Girl Can”

Sport England campaign launched in January 2015 to close the gender gap in sport and exercise by showing ordinary women of all shapes, sizes and abilities sweating, jiggling and enjoying it, aimed at the fear of being judged that keeps many women from exercising.

Years
2015
Country
United Kingdom
Budget
Approx. £10m (creative, media, PR, social media and campaign management), per Thinkbox case study
Topic
Physical activity
Asks people to
Start
Strategy
Self efficacySocial normsTestimonial
Channel
CinemaOutdoorSocial (organic)Social (paid)TV
Audience
AdultsYoung adultsYouth
Women and girls aged 14 and over, with the plan focused on ages 14-40.

Evidence

Self-reportedUnknown

Sponsor-commissioned TNS BRMB snapshot survey of 1,000 women aged 14-40 (November 2015): extrapolated to 2.8 million women who recognised the campaign saying they did some or more activity because of it, 1.6 million of whom said they started exercising. TNS tracker: 72% of women 14-40 recognised the ad; agreement with 'I feel exercise is for me' rose from 52% to 60%. Sport England also pointed to Active People Survey rises in weekly active women (148,700 in the year to September 2015; 261,200 cited in an April 2016 summary); these are not attributable to the campaign. Independent lab experiments (not evaluations of the campaign in the field): viewing This Girl Can raised appearance satisfaction and exercise intention versus control videos, but effects faded after viewing idealised images or one week later (Mulgrew et al. 2018); three exposures improved body appreciation and self-compassion but did not raise physical activity through autonomous motivation (Thogersen-Ntoumani et al. 2022).

Sponsor (who paid)

Credits (who made it)

  • FCB Inferno Creative, 2015 source
  • Carat Media, 2015 source
  • TNS BRMB Research evaluation, 2015 source

Executions (individual ads)

  • This Girl Can launch film 2015 · tv

Related campaigns

Sources

  1. Thinkbox case study: This Girl Can by Sport England archive
  2. Leisure Opportunities: Sport England: almost 3m women increase activity as a result of This Girl Can (January 2016) news · 2016
  3. Mulgrew KE et al. This girl can #jointhemovement: effectiveness of physical functionality-focused campaigns for women's body satisfaction and exercise intent. Body Image 2018;24:26-35 evaluation · 2018 · DOI 10.1016/j.bodyim.2017.11.007 · PMID 29253826
  4. Thogersen-Ntoumani C et al. Is a female physical empowerment campaign effective in improving positive body image, motivation for physical activity, and physical activity behavior in young female adults? A two-study experimental test of "This Girl Can". Body Image 2022;42:150-159 evaluation · 2022 · DOI 10.1016/j.bodyim.2022.06.001 · PMID 35717703

Research notes

The 2.8m figure is an extrapolated self-attribution from one sponsor-commissioned survey; sources disagree on whether TNS BRMB or Kantar Public ran it (same company, renamed) and on which Active People figure (148,700 vs 261,200) applies. Campaign status after 2016 and later waves (e.g. 'Fit Got Real', 2024 ten-year anniversary per The Drum) seen only in search snippets; endYear left out. thisgirlcan.co.uk URL not opened. 'Sweating, jiggling' wording in summary paraphrases widely reported creative; verify against the films.

Record cases/sport-england-this-girl-can.json, updated 2026-10-23· Link to this campaign