AUCKLAND, Monday: DDB Group Aotearoa and Finch are behind a global movement designed to highlight and correct the inconsistency of searchable facts that disadvantages sportswomen.
Correct The Internet’s aim is to highlight and correct the inaccuracies in internet search results and make sportswomen more visible as a result.
Who has scored the most goals in international football? The internet will generally tell you it’s Cristiano Ronaldo, when it’s actually women’s footballer Christine Sinclair.
The campaign is the collective work of an international group of like-minded people who saw the need to get behind the cause, championed by former NZ Football Fern Rebecca Sowden, founding partner of Correct The Internet and owner of United Nations’ ‘Football for the Goals’ member Team Heroine – an international sports marketing consultancy.
The problem was first discovered when DDB was recently researching facts about the world’s top footballers as part of a pitch.
The team discovered that women held many of football’s records. However, when asking simple, ungendered questions to find these facts, the internet was incorrectly putting men ahead of the statistically superior women in its search results.
“When asking simple, ungendered questions, the internet was incorrectly putting men ahead of the statistically superior women in its search results.”
Finch director Lex Hodge said: “The campaign had been a hugely collaborative process with the team working collectively towards a single goal – correcting the internet to help make sportswomen more visible.
“When this came to me, I was beyond excited. The quest for fairness, and the mana/strength to stand up and speak truth to power is so creatively liberating.
“There is no hesitation, no politics – the girl in the film just wants the truth. And that is what is so chilling – the place we gather information from just isn’t giving us the facts. It was important to me that through the film we gave the internet a feeling of real presence, power in numbers.”
Finch produced a emotive video to launch the campaign which was shown at the NZ Football Ferns game against the USA women’s team at Eden Park on Saturday 21 January.
Rebecca Sowden says she is passionate about helping the world recognise all sporting heroes and empower the next generation of sportswomen.
“Many of the world’s leading athletes are women. Many of the world’s sporting records are held by women. But when people search online for factual sporting information about athletes, the results favour the sportsmen, even when the sportswomen have greater statistics.
“Our campaign is designed to get a global community of people to speak up and take tangible action to reverse some of the gender biases that have been ruling our search engines.”
“Because the internet has learnt our bias many of its search engine results are inconsistent, often favouring men, and change depending on who is searching. Our goal is to empower the next generation of sportswomen by ensuring that when women are the best in the world, the internet reflects that.”
With its aim to empower women through the power of sport, Correct The Internet has also been endorsed by United Nations initiative, Football for the Goals, as well as the support of organisations such as Women in Sport Aotearoa, Women Sport Australia, and New Zealand Football, and many well-known athletes including English rugby’s Red Roses’ player, Shaunagh Brown, and NZ Football Fern Meikayla Moore.
DDB Group Aotearoa managing director – operations Liz Knox said: “There’s no easy way to correct the inconsistencies in search results. However, if people report these issues using each search engine’s inbuilt feedback function, they can be logged and fixed. The problem is, most people aren’t familiar with the feedback function, and recent design changes on some of the larger search engines make it harder to find.
“So, we built a tool that makes sending feedback simpler. And our campaign is designed to get a global community of people willing to speak up and take tangible action to reverse some of the gender biases that have been ruling our search engines. Success will see a correction of these search results over time.”
A number of partners are supporting the campaign across their channels, with extensive social media, OOH, television, radio and PR activity.
About Team Heroine
Team Heroine was launched just after the last FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2019, and works with brands and rights holders to unleash the power of women’s sport. Clients have included Visa Europe, Xero, Sport NZ and Spark Sport, and is a member of the United Nations’ Football for the Goals.
About Football for the Goals
This is a United Nations initiative that provides a platform for the global football community to engage with and advocate for the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (sdgs.un.org/goals). The fifth goal focuses on the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls. Innovation and technology have been highlighted as a tool for helping achieving gender equality and is the theme for the United Nation’s 2023 International Women’s Day on 8 March.
About Women in Sport Aotearoa
Women in Sport Aotearoa/Ngā Wāhine Hākinakina o Aotearoa exists to transform society through leadership, advocacy and research, ensuring that all women and girls gain equity of opportunity to participate, compete and build careers in play, active recreation and sport in Aotearoa New Zealand.
WISPA was established by 22 foundation members made up of senior women from across sport, business, government, and academia and launched on UN International Women’s Day 2017. Its strategic vision is to see ‘women and girls valued, visible and influential in sport and recreation’.
WISPA works across Aotearoa New Zealand and recently delivered the 8th IWG World Conference on Women & Sport in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland and Online.
CREDITS
Agency: DDB Group Aotearoa
Production: Finch
Director: Lex Hodge
Managing Director/Executive Producer: Corey Esse
Executive Producer: Rebekah ‘Bex’ Kelly
Producer: Sarah Cook
DOP: Gin Loane
Second Camera: Ben Rowsell
Art Director: Sam Evans
Casting: Catch/Finch
Post House for Edit: Atticus
Editor: Jack Hutchings
Post House for Grade: Atticus
Colourist: Pete Richie
Post House for VFX: Atticus
Lead VFX artist: Stu Bedford
Sound Company: Liquid Studios
Sound Person: Craig: Matuschka
Music Company: Liquid Studios
Composer: Peter Van der Fluit
Partner and Supporters
- Correct the Internet – Founding Partner: Rebecca Sowden
- Team Heroine | Supporter of Football For the Goals: Rebecca Sowden
- New Zealand Football
- Women in Sport Aotearoa [WISPA]
- Women in Sport Australia
- Fearless Women
- Eden Park
- Mediaworks
- PHD
- Warner Discovery
- Phantom Billstickers
- TVNZ
- UN Department of Global Communications – Outreach Division: Maher Nasser
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