Sports Direct has teamed up with Getty Image for a campaign aimed at tackling the visual misrepresentation of women’s football following this summer’s international tournament. 
The sports retailer has partnered with royalty-free photo bank Getty Image to create a free diverse bank of 75 images of fans, coaches and grassroots players from across the globe.
The ‘Equal View’ campaign aims to capture the true diversity of the football ecosystem, in a bid to show an accurate depiction of football in 2023.
Photos range from fans cheering their team in Australia, to shining a spotlight on grassroots coaches in America, attempting to break the stereotype that football is still ‘a man’s game’.
The campaign seeks to solve the issue that pictures of women at grassroots levels aren’t readily available – and is therefore encouraging media, brands and rights holders to use the imagery as much as possible to address bias in the SEO algorithms.
The campaign follows a survey by the sports brand which revealed that 44% of fans agreed that women’s sports should be represented more in the media.
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It comes in the wake of this summer’s successful women’s football world cup, and coincides with Sports Direct’s ‘Equal Play’ initiative, which seeks to close the gender gap in sports, by providing free equipment to grassroots clubs across the country.
“The increase in popularity of the women’s game is undeniable, and we are seeing more and more women and girls come into stores to buy football products,” said Sports Direct chief marketing officer, Beckie Stanion.
“Yet it’s so disheartening to see certain stereotypes continue to plague the game. An online search for football fans still brings up a disproportionate number of men or a very tokenistic view of women in football. We want to change that.”
Getty Images director creative insights EMEA, Jacqueline Bourke, added: “We are seeing a huge increase in the visibility of Women’s sport, yet there is still a long way to go in getting the representation to a truly inclusive and equitable level.
“Our VisualGPS research continually highlights the consumer appetite for authentic representation of female sports, and this custom work with Sports Direct is an important step in widening that representation beyond the action on the field or pitch.”
