Which Ads Best Inspire and Empower Women? Vote in the First #Femvertising Awards

Female-focused campaigns have been some of the most popular and polarizing ads in recent years, and now they're getting their own awards.

The first #Femvertising Awards, hosted by SheKnows Media, will be presented this summer, honoring brands for creating campaigns that advance the image of women. SheKnows, a women's lifestyle digital media company, announced the 12 finalists today.

Visitors to the awards show's site will determine the winners with their votes.

Selected by a diverse group of judges from journalism, marketing and advocacy groups, the finalists range from the obvious viral Dove spots to a lesser known Clif Bar campaign to the funny and surprising HelloFlo ads. Judges said these ads made it to the finals by breaking stereotypes and supporting women and girls.

"There is a strong and growing focus on the way that women and girls are portrayed in advertising, which has always played a critical role in shaping the way society thinks about gender," said Samantha Skey, SheKnows Media's chief revenue and marketing officer. "Increasingly, ads that objectify women and feed into their insecurities are coming under fire. For that reason, SheKnows Media launched the #Femvertising Awards to pay tribute to advertising campaigns that reject unattainable beauty standards and gender stereotypes."

There are four ad categories from which the public can choose their favorites, in the categories of Humor, Inspiring, Next Generation and Social Impact. Check out the brands and campaigns that made the top 12 below:

HUMOR

Cardstore by American Greetings: #WorldsToughestJob

HelloFlo: First Moon Party

Sport England: This Girl Can

INSPIRING

Clif Bar & Company: LUNAFEST

L'Oréal Paris: Women of Worth

RAM Trucks: Courage Inside

NEXT GENERATION

Always: #LikeAGirl

Google: Made With Code

Microsoft: Girls Do Science

SOCIAL IMPACT

Dove + Twitter: Speak Beautiful

Lyft: Rides to Success

Women on 20s

JUDGES

• Nina Bahadur, Online Deputy Editor at Huffington Post Women
• Jessica Bennett, Journalist and Contributing Editor at LeanIn.org
• Roo Ciambriello, Contributing Writer at Adweek
• Kat Gordon, Founder of The 3% Conference
• Yasmeen Hassan, Global Director of Equality Now
• Caroline Howard, Senior Editor for Forbes
• Feminista Jones, Social Worker, Activist, Writer and Founder of Feministajones.com
• Lila King, Product and Partnerships at HLN
• Malorie Lucich, Head of Product Communications at Pinterest
• Terri McCullough, Director of the Clinton Foundation's No Ceilings: The Full Participation Project
• Blake McKinney, Principal at latitude/The Richards Group
• Natalia Oberti Noguera, Founder and CEO of Pipeline Fellowship
• Alison Pincus, Co-Founder of One Kings Lane
• Jennifer Siebel Newsom, Founder, President and CEO of The Representation Project
• JJ Ramberg, Host of MSNBC's "Your Business" and Founder of Goodsearch
• Nancy Spears, CEO of GenConnect