Vivid Virgin Media / 'Inspired' - (2015) :60 (UK)

A little girl with a mop of curly hair is wide-eyed whilst watching England footballer Steph Houghton. In steps her equally curly mom, who shows her daughter the girl who inspired her when she was a lass, miss perfect ten Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci. Warning, I've done exactly this and had to peel my offspring off anything that resembled uneven bars for months after. On the tablet more inspiring women now appear, Billie Holiday, Emmeline Pankhurst and Paloma Faith. Singers and feminists. The women on the screen now point at the girl, and the ad ends on the girl staring at us - which gets an unfortunately creepy tone as it looks a bit like a dead stare.
The feminist zeitgeist-angle feels a little heavy-handed with Emmeline Pankhurst thrown in next to pop stars, as if we're checking a currently-important-topic box. There are plenty of inspiring people out there, and for children it could be as simple as the Blue Peter crew showing kids how to make things out of discarded household items. The suffragettes come later. Point is to show a transformative moment in a girls life, so that we can tie it to the tagline "Are you ready to be moved?" The girl googling how to print her own 3D rocket would have been far more interesting, but of course that doesn't sell Vivid broadband.

The song in the advert is Alicia Keys’ ‘Girl on Fire’ performed by X Factor contestant Fleur East.

Client: Virgin Media