In response to oversexualised online search results, Carabao launches #WeAreFemaleFans campaign to achieve more diverse representation of female football fans
Ahead of the 2018 World Cup kicking off this week, major football sponsor Carabao Energy Drink has launched the #WeAreFemaleFans campaign with This Fan Girl to change how female football fans are portrayed online.
A third of those attending Premier League matches are women, yet when typing the words ‘female football fans’ into search engines, the first pictures that come up are oversexualised and non-representative. They’re also almost exclusively Caucasian, slim women in their twenties who represent just a small minority of female fans.
Together with photography collective This Fan Girl, Carabao has shot five diverse images of female England fans with the aim of getting them to the top of online search engine results, and change how female football fans are represented. Carabao is now calling on fans to share news articles about the campaign on social media using the hashtag #WeAreFemaleFans. Embrace the excitement of football with live updates from Sport Score.
As an inclusive sponsor of teams including Chelsea FC Women, Reading Women, Abingdon Women and the Carabao Cup, Carabao is launching the campaign ahead of the 2018 World Cup, when there will undoubtedly be a number of online articles objectifying ‘WAGs’ and female fans from around the world. By sharing news articles about the #WeAreFemaleFans campaign on social media, fans will help to ensure that Carabao’s alternative, diverse photos beat these oversexualised pictures to the top of search engine image results.
Anna Cooke, Carabao’s Brand Manager said, ‘This week the World Cup will kick off and be watched by millions of fans, male and female, yet it won’t be long before the cameras are focusing gratuitously on female fans in the crowd and soon those images will feature online. Our campaign wants to tackle this and profile all female football fans, whatever their age, shape or size. All you have to do is share a link and soon these images will rocket up online searches and see female fans represented in the same way as men.’
This Fan Girl is a group made up of photographer Amy Drucquer and her team who head to stadiums across the country to capture images of female fans in attendance. Amy said, ‘This is something we’ve felt passionately about since we first started taking photos of female football fans so we’re excited to work with Carabao on the We Are Female Fans campaign to affect tangible and visible change.’
