Flicka - teaches girls to question media

The social ministry (department) in Sweden has launched an ad campaign that attacks media moguls morals. The campaign can be seen on poster, TV, Cinema and the web site Flicka.org (girl.org, also available as HTML only version at flicka.gov.se). The campaign is created by ad agency Forsman och Bodenfors.
One of the tv commercials which looks like a scene straight from the reality show Big Brother (the show that launched all the latest pop-tarts and famous-for-no-reason people) has a couple making out. Then the girl suddenly turns to the camera and asks: "Does a girl have to have sex on TV to get ahead?" and encourages viewers to ask Manfred Aronsson, CEO of Channel 5 (which Big Brother airs on), and gives out his phonenumber 08-520 555 55.

In another commercial, the usual rap video scene is depicted with half naked women washing cars all the while some rapper raps about sex Ho's that "do it like a pro" and getting down . One of the girls suddenly walks to the camera and asks: "What the heck is this? Why do nearly all videos look like this?" and then suggests you ask Mårten Aglander, CEO of Universal Music and gives out his phone number.

The posters in the campaign are equally critical, questions like "Why does the same magazine lists the best dressed men and the sexiest undressed women?" and "Why does a national newspaper allow ads for phone sex?", all of the posters have contact phone numbers to the people responsible, and the website has email addresses to everyone involved.

All media in the campaign has been donated, posters are seen in the subways and commercials are shown on channel 3 and 4 - but not on the targeted channel 5.

Sara Damber who is the projectleader of the campaign said to Resumé: "The idea behind the campaign is to highlight everyones personal responsibility in the current media climate where objectification and lookism is the norm. It's urgent that we ask questions to the people who are responsible for this type of content."

The flicka group also tours schools and has educating links to media criticism on their website. To watch the commercials click on Flicka.org and look for the words at the bottom "se reklamfilmerna".