Sexism in Sport: Wunderman Thompson hacks a live volleyball game - to expose sexist camera angles

From the FIFA Women’s World Cup to the Olympics, the popularity of women’s sporting events just keeps growing – and attracting an increasing amount of broadcast coverage. Wunderman Thompson came up with this innovative little hack to expose some of the bad angles.

What bad angles? Well, as it turns out, female athletes are about 10 times more likely to be visually objectified with a camera angle than male athletes. At the 2021 Summer Olympics alone, 2,500 images objectifying women were reported.  

You might not have noticed, but women who play sports do see it. Young girls notice too and may feel self-conscious in uniforms, in a landmark study from Victoria University they found that flexible uniform policies are key to keeping girls and women in sports. Focusing too often on female anatomy rather than sporting achievements, through invasive angles and excessive close-up shots can potentially devalue the empowerment that sports bring to participants.

As a beauty brand that aims to support women against everyday sexism, Unilever’s beauty brand LUX wants to raise awareness of the issue and start a conversation with both broadcasters and audiences to encourage them to ‘Change The Angle’.

Working closely with Wunderman Thompson Singapore, LUX teamed up with Volleyball SA (South Africa) and sports broadcaster SABC on a bold new initiative in which they hacked a live tournament by highlighting potentially sexist camera angles - and in so doing, flipping the male gaze back on itself. The Qr code on the bikini bottoms leads to the video below. 

The initiative is also supported by a host of top female athletes, sports commentators and officials. Organised by the South African Volleyball Association, the Durban Open live Volleyball game took place on April 15 and 16 in Durban, where eight different teams of South Africa’s top women beach volleyball athletes participated. This was broadcast live by SABC reaching an estimated audience of 19.7 million in South Africa. As part of the ‘Change The Angle’ initiative, female players wore QR codes on their bodies - the same areas that sports broadcasters tend to focus on.

“Women in sports are 10 times more likely to be objectified by camera angles that focus on certain body parts compared to their male counterparts. When we found out that this is also an issue for top female athletes who have achieved incredible things, we knew we had to act,” Severine Vauleon, Global Brand Vice President of LUX says, “This doesn’t only devalue the female athletes’ professional performance and achievements, but also perpetuates the objectification issue many women face every day. At LUX, we believe that beauty should be a source of strength, and that the focus should be on celebrating the beauty of their strength, skills and achievements in sport.” 

The choice of beach volleyball is a strategic one, as the sport suffers more than most from baked-in bias, due to being played under hot conditions and in minimal clothing. But while beach volleyball may be one of the most obvious sports in terms of misdirected attention, the problem is a global one. As a result, key sports influencers including Cricket commentator Kass Naidoo, Netball star Bongi Msomi, LUX Brand Ambassador Zozibini Tunzi have thrown their considerable online and real world influence behind the campaign, helping to spread the QR code and its underlying message. 

And the issue is not just confined to the sports arena. Objectification is a global issue - from film sets to the streets - and the vast majority of women globally, have been subject to it at some point in their everyday lives. Which is why the ‘Change The Angle’ campaign is only the first step in highlighting a much broader cause. 

To that end, LUX has partnered with South African NGO, Sonke Gender Justice, to work towards helping women in South Africa to combat street harassment by affecting sustained behaviour change amongst men and boys. This partnership aims to change social norms that reinforce everyday sexism by training religious and community leaders, media personnel, teachers and student influencers to create communities that are safe spaces for women to express their beauty, fully and authentically.

“Ultimately our goal is to make people think about how female athletes - and women in general - are judged by appearances rather than performances. We want to show the world that focusing on women’s bodies, rather than their abilities, is a form of sexism that needs to be challenged,” says Marco Versolato, CCO at Wunderman Thompson Singapore. “The ‘Change The Angle’ campaign website offers six simple guidelines to effect change in how female athletes are portrayed – and we hope that everyone who's keen to see change will spread the word.”

“This is a bold and powerful move for a beauty brand like LUX to take, and it makes me even prouder to be a part of the LUX family. I am hoping to see the change that we need in the sports fraternity so that women athletes are celebrated for the amazing talent that they have rather than being objectified in a sexual manner. I encourage everyone to do what they can to participate and push media in South Africa and across the world to #Change the Angle” Says Zozi Tunzi former Miss Universe.

“LUX has been fighting against everyday sexism for years now. Wherever it shows up”  says Bas Korsten, Global CCO at Wunderman Thompson. “The media and specifically sports media have been contributing to the objectification of women by the way they point their cameras. Influencing millions and millions of people watching these sports events. It’s time the media start acknowledging and owning their role. Start changing the angle of their broadcasts. There’s so much beauty and strength in these incredible performances. Let’s focus on that!”