Under Armour Tells Its Women Athletes' Stories Through Poetry in Artful New Ads

Misty Copeland. Natasha Hastings. Jessie Graff. Alison Désir. Zoe Zhang. They're all athletes. Not female athletes—just athletes. That's a key distinction Under Armour is trying to make in its latest marketing campaign, "Unlike Any," for its women's division. Last August, during the Olympics in Rio, the Under Armour team notices something unsettling. "Every time a woman won, she got compared to men," Adrienne Lofton, svp of global brand management, said Wednesday at the launch event for the new campaign in New York's Chelsea Market. "We had to start thinking about how to change this conversation. Why is there always a framing that when a woman does well, she's compared to the greatness of a man? We needed to remove gender from the conversation," Lofton said. For "Unlike Any," created by Droga5, Under Armour selected five standout athletes (two of them new to the brand's roster) who have all achieved great feats in their careers, but have also overcome massive hurdles to get to where they are today. Rather than having the athletes tell the stories themselves, the brand turned to poets (Aja Monet, Kojey Radical, Dominique Christina, Aristophanes and Saul Williams) to breathe new life into these stories. The results are quietly breathtaking. [kickout id="6"] "What we wanted to do was strip down and really get into the psyche of, Who are these athletes? And how are they able to continue to propel themselves forward?" Lofton told Adweek. "We thought, That's going to be one of those first key steps to break through this perception that Under Armour is about sweat only and is too much of a performance brand for me. No. We are for every woman." It may seem difficult for an everyday person to relate to Copeland's specific path to success and being a professional ballerina, but there are elements of her struggles that women (or anyone, for that matter) can relate to. That is what each of the poets aim to capture in their respective films. The combination of Copeland's strength and grace, paired with Saul Williams' words ("The systemic structure built to keep me in place is the stage I dance on. Black, and woman") and the direction by Agile Films' Georgia Hudson, is chill-inducing. It's also unlike anything we've seen from the brand before. "It doesn't feel so much like advertising because it's not so very loud and shouting a message out—how you should live, how you should behave and how you should train," said Alexander Nowak, executive creative director at Droga5. "In the past, the work has been a little more active, but this one is very delicate and almost observational. We just observe people and let the poet tell this beautiful story." "In this campaign we wanted to honor under recognized feats of female athleticism by showcasing women who cannot be compared to anything that has come before. By portraying them as somewhat 'godlike,' we wanted to elevate them to the level they deserve," added Kia Heinnen, senior art director for Droga5. While Copeland's is the only spot without any musical pairing—a decision made close to the final hour in the last rounds of editing—the four other spots delivers the same powerful punch and are shot in the same style, with the camera flipping upside down and capturing the athletes from all angles. "With filming, the idea was that as the poetry tries to circumscribe the athlete. Because the athlete is 'Unlike Any,' the camera does the same," said Felix Richter, executive creative director at Droga5. "The thought was to do something that feels sort of celebratory from a camerawork point of view, but also fresh, new and interesting. These sort of twists and turns are kind of happening in symmetry with the words." For Natasha Hastings, the self-proclaimed "400M Diva" and gold medal-winning runner, the spot focuses on her battle to overcome her own inner doubts and how that made her unlike any other athlete or runner out there—male or female. "I figured out how to fly. How to command my limbs, of my immaculate womanness. The red lipstick war paint. I am a chariot of possibility," poet Dominique Christina says as Hastings explodes into the distance. [kickout id="7"] There were really no parameters for the films in terms of length. "There weren't so many constraints on the canvas of the advertising because, most likely, this campaign lives online. We are not limited to hitting a 30-second mark or 60-second mark. If the film is 43 seconds long and that's the perfect length to tell her story, then so be it," Nowak said. Stunt woman Jessie Graff's ad, narrated by Kojey Radical, runs 37 seconds long, while Alison Désir's hits 53 seconds. [kickout id="8"] The "Unlike Any" campaign will continue to roll out over the coming months, with another big push coming this fall featuring skier Lindsey Vonn, who was the first spokeswoman for the women's line when it launched a decade ago. Check out the other spots from the campaign, along with stills of each of the athletes, below. [kickout id="9"] [kickout id="10"] [kickout id="5"] [kickout id="4"] [kickout id="1"] [kickout id="3"] [kickout id="2"] CREDITS Client: Under Armour Campaign: "Unlike Any" Agency: Droga5 NY Creative Chairman: David Droga Chief Creative Officer: Ted Royer Executive Creative Director: Felix Richter Executive Creative Director: Alexander Nowak Senior Copywriter: Doug Hamilton Senior Art Director: Kia Heinnen Art Director: Castro Desroches Junior Copywriter: Diana Perez Chief Creation Officer: Sally-Ann Dale Co-Director of Film Production: Jesse Brihn Co-Director of Film Production: Bryan Litman Senior Producer Film: Rebecca Wilmer Producer, Film: Nathan Pardee Music Supervisors: Ryan Barkan, Mike Ladman Business Affairs Manager: Mairéad Murray Director of Interactive Production: Niklas Lindstrom Director of Art Production: Cliff Lewis Senior Producer, Art: Bianca Escobar Director of Print Services: Rob Lugo Global Chief Strategy Officer: Jonny Bauer Co-Head of Strategy: Harry Roman-Torres Group Strategy Director: Will Davie Strategist: Newman Granger Head of Communications Strategy: Colleen Leddy Communications Strategy Director: Hillary Heath Senior Communications Strategist: Kathryn Ruocco Chief Intelligence Officer: Amy Avery Data Strategist: Kaveri Gautam Executive Group Director: Julian Cheevers Group Account Director: Shane Chastang Account Director: Lucy Santilli Account Supervisor: Kate Tyler Monroe Associate Account Manager: Megan Haggerty Group Project Manager: Bill Wilson Senior Project Manager: Carolyn Brafman Client: Under Armour Chief Executive Officer: Kevin Plank Chief Marketing Officer: Andrew Donkin SVP, Global Brand Management: Adrienne Lofton SVP & General Manager, Women's: Pam Catlett VP Global Brand Management, Women’s Youth: Attica Jacques Global Brand Manager, Campaign Integration: Bené Eaton Global Brand Manager, Women’s: Cate Goytisolo Associate Global Brand Manager, Women’s: Molly O’Hara Vice President, Global Brand Creative: Brian Boring Art Director, Global Brand Creative, Women’s Youth: Giselle Lewis-Archibald Project Manager, Global Marketing Operations: Jen Aldinger VP, Global Consumer Engagement: Jim Mollica Senior Director, Global Consumer Engagement: Jack Daley Senior Manager, Global Consumer Engagement: Veronica Mao SVP, Global Communications: Diane Pelkey Director, Global Communications: Erin Wendell Marketing Director, Under Armour China: Lydia Zhu Senior Marketing Manager, Under Armour China: Eddy Chen Production Company: Agile Films Director: Georgia Hudson DOP: Zoë White Executive Producer: Myles Payne Head of Content: Alex Chamberlain Line Producer: Martha English Editorial: WORK Editorial Editor (Lindsey, Alison, Natasha): Ben Jordan Editor (Misty, Jessie, Zoe): Cass Vanini Assistant Editor: Trevor Myers Assistant Editor: Theo Mercado Executive Producer: Erica Thompson Senior Producer: Sari Resnick Post Production: Blacksmith Executive Producer: Charlotte Arnold Executive Producer: Megan Sweet Producer: Anu Nagaraj VFX Shoot Supervisor: Daniel Morris VFX Shoot Supervisor: Melissa Graff 2D Lead: Daniel Morris 2D Lead: Melissa Graff 2D Artist: Iwan Zwarts 2D Artist: Margolit Steiner 2D Artist: Jacob Slutsky 2D Artist: Caio Sorrentino 2D Artist: Tuna Unalan 2D Artist: Trace VFX 3D Tracking: QL Beans Designer: Min Liu Color: MPC Executive Producer, Color: Dani Zeitlin Producer, Color: Jenna Gabriel Colorist: Adrian Seery Music: Q Department Executive Producer: Zach Rice Senior Producer: Guin Frehling Creative Director: Drazen Bosnjak Sound: Gramercy Park Studios Audio Engineer: Chris Afzal Sound Designer: Chris Afzal Executive Producer: Vicky Ferraro Associate Producer: Laura Goehrke

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Under Armour Tells Its Women Athletes' Stories Through Poetry in Artful New Ads

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