Green Party hires Madwomen for female-focused spot

Madwomen, an agency specialising in advertising to women, has produced a party political broadcast for the Green Party as its first TV spot.

Green Party leader Caroline Lucas appears in an inner-city street in the spot, promoting the party’s campaign ahead of local elections on 3 May.

The two-minute 40-second film, "growing a Green future", also features ‘living graffiti’ based on plants, by artist Anna Garforth.

Specialist agency Madwomen provided strategy and creative for the party broadcast, which aims to attract female voters without alienating men. The Green Party previously worked with Glue Isobar.

Madwomen was set up by Gail Parminter and Kate Freaerson, who have worked at agencies including Saatchi & Saatchi and Ogilvy & Mather and are involved in gender research at the University of Bristol.

The agency offers creative services and consultancy, and runs a course on advertising to women at the IPA.

Kate Frearson, the planning director at Madwomen, said: "With a female leader and MP, Natalie Bennet and Caroline Lucas respectively, and policies that aim to create a more caring society, the Greens really do offer an alternative to the masculinised, dog-eat-dog style of politics that we’re all used to.

"There’s lots of great advertising aimed at men that uses humour, but unfortunately we don’t see the same quality aimed at women. We see too many dated advertising stereotypes that portray women only as mothers, wives or lovers.

"Ads from Asda, Morrisons and Fiat 500 present the women in roles like the drudge housewife, and while female consumers appreciate that being acknowledged, they like to be understood as having more to their lives than that."

"We’re not saying there needs to be a seismic change in adland, just that there is an opportunity to improve and to get more bang for your advertising buck from the client’s point of view."

The spot will air on BBC and ITV on 24 April. It was written by Gail Parminter and art directed by Chris Sainsbury. The film was shot by Marc Silver, produced by Danielle Ward and edited by James Smith–Rewse through Annex Films.

Gail Parminter, the creative director of Madwomen, said: "It’s a great piece of work to show what we can do because it’s not for a typical feminine hygiene brand or a women’s FMCG brand."

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