Maybelline New York shows game discrimination through female and LGBTQIA+ players’ eyes in newly-launched campaign via HERO
Australia’s #1 makeup brand, Maybelline New York has today launched a new campaign via independent creative agency HERO to showcase the toxic harassment facing women, non-binary people and other LGBTQIA+ communities in the Australian gaming universe, in line with their mission to give everyone the self-confidence to express their beauty, to play and to make change.
The global beauty icon, part of the L’Oréal Groupe, is lifting the lid on the devastating impacts discrimination is having on gamer mental health, as part of its Brave Together platform — a global initiative to destigmatize anxiety and depression, and support all those impacted.
The new Through Their Eyes campaign comes off the back of recent national survey results on the level of discrimination across all genders in the Australian gaming space, which revealed 83% of female identifying and 50% of LGBTQIA+ identifying gamers have directly experienced and/or observed offensive behaviour or language while online gaming, with 55% of female identifying and 67% of LGBTQIA+ identifying players admitting to turning off their microphone when playing to hide their gender and avoid harassment.
To shine a light on this, Maybelline has partnered with HERO to release an eye-opening film that follows male gamers into the female lived experience through voice-modification software.
The film shows prominent Aussie male gamers and content creators, Joel “JoelBergs” Bergs and Drew “DrewD0g” Warne confronted by gamer discrimination, seeing it literally through female eyes by playing a first-person shooter game with female-altered voices and fake female profiles.
Within less than two hours of game play with altered voices, the male players are bombarded with abusive comments whilst well-known female-identifying gamers, Amber “PaladinAmber” Wadham and Luna “Luminumn” are watching on, finding alarming similarities to the discrimination they face in their own experiences.
At the conclusion, player Amber is asked by Joel why she keeps gaming if she always encountered such abuse and responds with, “Because I love [playing].” Amber continues, “It doesn’t have to be a boys’ club or a girls’ club. Gaming is made for everyone, and should be experienced by everyone.”
Says Alexandra Shadbolt, marketing director, Maybelline: “Maybelline New York has always advocated for feeling confident, powerful and represented. Since the launch of our Brave Together initiative in 2022, it has been our passion to learn more about the lived experiences of women, non-binary people and other LGBTQIA+ communities to understand where more work needs to be done, whilst providing more immediate support to those impacted by anxiety and depression.
“In understanding the sheer amount of discrimination these communities face in the gaming sphere, we really wanted to showcase this lived experience for more Australians to see what it’s really like in pockets of our online world. We hope that seeing it all play out through the eyes of our players, more gamers can think differently about their own actions and we can all be more conscious of creating a safer, inclusive space in gaming.”
Says Shane Geffen, executive creative director, HERO: “The more we delved into the gaming world, the more evidence we found that it was a toxic environment for female, trans and non-binary players. Something that was going unchecked.”
Says Anneliese Sullivan, copywriter, HERO: “It was truly shocking. What we could witness in just a few short hours made us only imagine how it feels to face this hate everyday.
“It’s really our vision for this film to play a part in turning ambivalent gamers into allies for a safer, more inclusive gaming community for everyone.”
Says Tracey Campbell, director of marketing and fundraising at ReachOut: “Online spaces can be positive places for young people to learn, relax and connect with their communities. And, we know that gaming has many positive impacts on the lives of so many young people across Australia that love it. However, young people also tell us at ReachOut that they also experience things like discrimination, bullying and harassment online.
“ReachOut continues to call on online platforms to do more to make their products safer spaces for young people. We also encourage young people and their parents to take a proactive approach to staying safe while gaming, and to seek support if they need it from places such as Kids Helpline, ReachOut and the eSafety Commission.”
The 3-minute film launches across owned social media channels and will be screened at Maybelline’s live gaming tournament, the Eyes Up Cup, next month. The tournament will be contested between 32 of Australia’s most impactful women in gaming on a custom Maybelline New York Fortnite mod map designed for the campaign in a collaboration between Maybelline New York, Click Media, Google, and HERO.
To learn more about Maybelline New York’s Through Their Eyes campaign and view the film, visit maybelline.com.au/throughtheireyes.
CLIENT – Maybelline New York
Marketing Director: Alexandra Shadbolt
Digital Marketing & Comms Lead: Alana Pozzebon
Brand Business Lead: Adele Courgenay
Brand Engagement Manager: Liz Odey
Brand Manager MNY Eye: Tess Norman
Digital Brand Manager: Dawid Zastawnik
AGENCY – HERO
Executive Creative Director: Shane Geffen
Creative Director: Andrew Woodhead
Art Director: Charlotte Smith
Copywriters: Anneliese Sullivan, Will Fox
Senior Designer: Aaron Wickers
Head of Strategy: Tallon Mason-Kane
Group Business Director: Charlie McDevitt
National Digital Managing Partner: Tim Evans
Lead Project Manager: Jenny Pham Manuel
Producer: Grace Quinn
Editor: Joel Sharpe
Online editor: Adrian Katz
PRODUCTION – Truce Films
Director: Jessica Barclay Lawton
Executive Producer: Elise Trenorden
Producer: Carla McConnell
DOP: Jesse Gohier-Fleet
SOUND DESIGN & MUSIC – Gusto Studios
32 Comments
Never have I wanted make up more. The link and message in this unstaged piece of content really shows me that I can be me and don’t need to hide behind anything. Oh wait.
I never even knew this was a thing. Shocking to watch, but a powerful way to highlight the problem. Confronting in a good way, kudos to all involved.
https://www.bestadsontv.com/ad/142433/Women-in-Games-Switch-Voices
Male bashing
I found this pretty confronting. Can’t imagine having to deal with that.
Man, am I clearly out of touch with both society and advertising!
Or should that be:
Person, am I clearly out of touch with both society and advertising!
If this is your response to watching this piece, then my advice is to seek help.
If this is for real then we need to turn this world off and on again. Because, fucking hell, that’s awful. I stopped watching halfway because I was going to walk out of my office and slap a gamer.
I usually roll my eyes when people flag past work as the same thing, as it tends to be some small connection or similarity and nothing more.
But that Argentinian one, is straight up the exact same idea with a very very similar execution.
Surely you’d see that and just go, ‘nah, been done already, back to the drawing board’, or at least put some kind of spin on it.
Not saying its not well done as I think it is. But yeah..shame
Powerful work.
Unfortunately way too close to the original
https://youtu.be/bgvuV9D-W_0
Awkward if you’re a creative involved.
The BBDO version wins at award shows. Pick your categories carefully
Bloody hell this is good.
That should’ve been sold to XBox or another gaming client. It’s great this stuff is being tackled in really powerful ways but its not going to do anything for a make-up brand (and then they won’t do it again).
In the excitement, we all want to get a cool idea up.
But always sense check your concept.
If it’s done before, it’s the last risk your client will take with you.
Looks like a direct copy of a good idea that came out 5 months ago. Unfortunately it lacks the link to the client and the execution of the Argentinian one.
This was great. Horrible to watch, but for the reasons that it really struck home. Well done.
I read the headline and rolled my eyes, but the film was pretty full on. But still… what’s the point? No real solution is offered. Surely just highlighting as issue doesn’t constitute an idea?
Having really liked this work,I was bitterly disappointed when I saw the Argentinian spot.
The Argentina version only came out 5 months ago, this idea could have been conceived, pitched and started to be made before anyone saw it no?
Surely that’s the case
You’d be gutted if so
On the rare occasion you’ve sold an idea in and you’re in pre-prod, but then ‘faaaaaark’ some just did it.
Sure, you could ask client to pay the cancellation fees and pull it completely for sake of who got their slightly earlier, or you push on and try to do it for impact in your market.
Tough call either way. And not one I’d like to make.
Too many similarities to be an unlucky coincidence once this one was already produced. The supers the conversations and reactions all look like they were heavily referenced from the BBDO work.
There’s no way the team at Hero would have ripped off the idea. It wouldn’t serve any purpose to do so. It’s just an unfortunate thing that they didn’t check if the idea had been done before. Anyone who thinks that everyone on this idea would have all conspired to copy another piece of work, is absolutely out of touch with how award winning ideas are made.
How does ‘seeing it through their eyes’ have anything to do with audio abuse? ‘Keep your eyes up for abuse’? There isn’t any level of visual abuse beyond the normal game play. Shouldn’t it be ‘keep an ear out’? The video shows players hearing it with their own ears. This idea highlights an audio problem, not a visual one, So how does this have anything to do with makeup?
Also, a brand wouldn’t dare highlight a problem these days without providing a solution or a path to a solution… so what is Maybelline doing to combat this audio hate? I saw references to a mental health organisation but that isn’t a solution, that’s a bandaid.
Not trying to be a hater or anything, I just find this whole thing very confusing, and am struggling to see any clear role for the brand. Happy to be convinced otherwise though.
Just toooo close for comfort with the BBDO spot.
Sorry.
This is not Hero’s style at all.
I reckon something weird has happened here – it’s not a coincidence – way to executionally similar. I reckon someone got inspired with someone else’s idea and the management was not aware of it.
Would be great to hear from Hero to understand what’s gone on here.
At least the Women In Games version from a few months back has a reason to be this idea. Forgive me, but my cynicism towards the benevolent intentions of Maybelline and L’Oréal runs quite high with this one. Feels like an idea that was looking for a client.
Its funny our agency was discussing this idea a few years ago. Looks like BBDO got in first.
No coincidences.
Yes there are you idiot. So many times I have had or seen an idea in the agency, only to see that same idea pop up from another agency around the same time.
The experiment is good, but then what? What are they actually doing? Or is it just an awareness of the issue thing? If so no real change being pushed for.
Half marks.
Initial reaction: I felt the hurt of those comments. That will stay with me.
Second reaction: reading these comments and feeling that the intention of raising awareness of this issue is lost with the criticism of ‘the work’.
This is so stupid. this article makes it seem like no one, but women get made fun of online. I’ve been called useless, fatherless, a whale and told I’m a waste of air. If you play a game full of toxic people, be prepared to be made fun of. if you don’t want to get made fun of just play a single player game or something.