Merrell's women-led campaign aims to make outdoors more inclusive

As Women's History Month begins, hiking footwear brand Merrell is encouraging women to get outdoors in a new campaign created by a female-led team. The push, which debuted today, pokes fun at self-care routines that can make women feel inadequate or lacking.

A 60-second spot, titled “More Less,” follows a series of women as they put down their gold dumbbells and vibrating face masks, and other trends that "keep telling us, you need more this to be more than that," a voiceover says. 

"We're more than enough," the voiceover says at the conclusion of the ad. 

The ad was conceived by a female-led crew from Merrell’s marketing agency, Lafayette American and Mutt Film, with Samantha Stone Shannon directing. 

“The self-care industry has made billions of dollars by telling women they don’t measure up, and that the only way to fix that deficit is by buying certain products,” Janice Tennant, Merrell's chief marketing officer, said in a press release. “The goal of this campaign is not just to reclaim outdoor spaces for women, but to help them reclaim themselves.”

When Tennant was named CMO in 2020, 71% of people in outdoor activities were white, according to the Outdoor Industry Association. Today, new outdoor participants were more likely to be female, younger, living in an urban area and slightly more ethnically diverse than existing participants in 2020, the association found. 

Female-led team

A majority of the creative team behind the ad were women. Even though women make up more than half of the agency, media and tech industries, according to a 2021 report by She Runs It, only 29% of creative directors were female in 2020, according to the 3 Percent Movement. And just 3% of creative directors were female in 2008.

The “More Less” campaign may resonate with women who feel misrepresented in the ad industry. Ninety-one percent of women surveyed by Yankelovich Monitor and Greenfield Online said that advertisers do not understand them.

“It’s really nice to work with women because I feel like there's a vulnerability and a collaboration that I’ve experienced,” said Sarah Bill, creative director with Lafayette American, which is partly female-owned. “That just makes the work stronger.”