Overview
Stage-Setting:
Third Love was founded by Heidi Zak to be - as Yahoo! crisply put it-"The Anti-Victoria."
It was the ultimate challenger brand, standing resolutely for body positivity in a category marked by the
judgmental sweep of visual perfection.
The Ask:
Propel Third Love into the conversation and cultural zeitgeist as a brand that stands for more than a bra.
Find a moment to start a movement.
The Idea Trigger:
Calvin Klein ran a billboard that was unashamedly sexist, and 5W responded to the gift.
The Big Push:
Timing was everything. In less than a week, 5W launched a multi-platform campaign #MoreThanMyUndewear.
The engine was an open letter to CK and a raw YouTube video where Heidi Zak responded to the billboard with elegant fury,
taking on and taking down, its demeaning stereotypes.
Strategy
To spark a national conversation and incite a grassroots call to action, ThirdLove and 5W created and promoted a YouTube video, which outlined Zak's personal offense to the ad, published a public letter from Zak to Calvin Klein's CEO, Steve Shiffman, and created a Change.org petition to call for removal of the ad.
Results
Third Love was everywhere love should be. 5W's favorite headline was - from Cosmopolitan - "People are Seriously Pissed about Calvin Klein's Sexist Billboard." The bold subhead was a direct quote from Heidi: "Believe women can do anything without limitation and that we aren't defined by our underwear." The movement was monumental. Calvin Klein caved and removed the billboard, although they claimed it was part of a planned rotation. The company that exposed women exposed themselves.
In one week, results included more than 40 full features on the campaign in top-tier outlets including Business Insider, HuffPost, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, BuzzFeed, Fortune, Refinery29, Yahoo! and more, garnering 1,005,406,398+ media impressions.
