A commemorative campaign for 8M, Women’s Day, has put Sporting de Gijón in the spotlight. The Asturian club published a video on its social networks early this morning. In the first seconds you see a young girl, dressed in a polo shirt with the club’s shield, and a red and white ribbon in her hair, cleaning the stripes on the Molinón grass. The stadium is completely empty. After finishing brushing and erasing the paint in some parts of the field, the girl takes the machine and draws some stripes. Different. She draws the symbol of Venus, in honor of women.
The club’s desire was always to join the celebrations and demands of 8M, but they made a mistake in how and neglected some details. Something they were not aware of until the first criticism arrived, says the club’s communications director, Carlos Llamas. “We have made a mistake. The intention was not this, but it has been poorly executed and poorly contextualized.” In order for the Venus symbol to be seen well, as the communications and marketing team wanted, some lines had to be erased from the field first. And that is what the protagonist of the advertisement does, she is one of the club’s players before she starts painting once more. The result is not ideal, when designing a campaign in favor of the demands of feminism in which a woman is seen cleaning with a brush and bucket, kneeling on the stadium grass.
The communications team considered withdrawing the campaign, but rejected that idea and preferred to defend their work and explain their motivations. In addition to assuming the downpour.