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Sweaty Betty champions body confidence with Wear the Damn Shorts campaign

Wear the Damn Shorts by Sweaty Betty and Havas London, UK

UK – Sweaty Betty is back with a powerful new chapter of its Wear the Damn Shorts campaign, confronting women’s leg-related insecurities head-on. Research by the activewear brand reveals that only 16% of UK women feel confident wearing shorts while exercising, with just 15% of customers wearing them regularly. The campaign, created by Havas London, responds with a cinematic celebration of real legs highlighting varicose veins, cellulite and scars.

‘The way society is making women feel again at the moment, with the whole weight-loss conversation, there’s just a lot out there that’s making women feel crap about themselves again,’ says Havas creative director and co-director Amy Fasey.

Shot by all-female directing duo RIOT, the 30-second hero film and accompanying OOH campaign zoom in on legs as art, reclaiming so-called imperfections as beauty marks. With taglines like ‘Getting your legs out has no age limit’ and ‘These legs are made for flaunting’, the work calls on women to embrace their bodies and wear the damn shorts – unapologetically.

Read our In our Body Hostility Era and Neozempic Futures reports to unpack the evolving conversation about body image, dieting and confidence, and how brands are strategically engaging with this shifting landscape.

Strategic opportunity

Embrace relatability by spotlighting real stories, people and unfiltered visuals. Highlight so-called imperfections as powerful features that make your target audience feel special rather than alienated

R/GA predicts brand pivot from SEO to ASO to optimise AI-driven search

US – As generative AI reshapes how consumers access information, advertising giant R/GA is helping brands increase their visibility with a new AI Search Optimisation (ASO) Platform.

Offering real-time diagnostics across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini and more, the tool gives brands a critical edge by providing continuous benchmarking, sentiment analysis and AI-specific strategy recommendations.

With over a third (34%) of Google searches now generating AI summaries, according to LBB Online, and a sharp rise in reliance on zero-click results, Gartner predicts a 25% decline in traditional search engine volume by 2026.

‘R/GA’s AI Search Optimisation Platform provides us with actionable insights as we partner with brands to optimise and refine their visibility across emerging AI search tools,’ said Marc Williamson, director of marketing sciences at R/GA.

Spotlighting a key shift in e-commerce, AI agents capable of understanding taste and delivering personalised recommendations are emerging as the future of online retail.

We outlined the shift from keyword-based searches to dialogue-driven discovery in our Web Summit 2024: Seven Trends to Watch report.

Google DeepMind

Strategic opportunity

Treat ASO as the next SEO. Start auditing your content across AI platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Gemini to understand how your brand appears in AI-generated summaries and how to optimise your e-commerce presence to be scanned effectively by large language models

Stat: Reproductive health inequalities exposed in England

Centre for Ageing Better, UK

England – A new survey has revealed that more than a quarter (28%) of women in England are living with serious reproductive health issues such as endometriosis, polycystic ovary syndrome, cervical cancer or uterine fibroids.

Conducted by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in 2023 and funded by the Department of Health, the study of 60,000 women found that more than 30% of participants aged 16–24 report severe period pain.

The study also highlights glaring health inequalities: Black women are 69% more likely than white women to report a reproductive condition, largely driven by higher rates of uterine fibroids, with 19.8% affected, compared to just 5% of white women. Overall, 74% of respondents said they had experienced a recent reproductive health problem.

The findings expose systemic, operational and cultural barriers to care, compounded by under-researched health conditions.

In The Future of Femtech, author of The Vagina Business, Marina Gerner, sat down with LS:N Global to discuss the innovators addressing centuries of neglect in women’s health and the challenges faced by brands striving to close the gender health gap.

Strategic opportunity

Brands should develop targeted health products and services for underserved groups, focusing on conditions such as fibroids in Black women with tailored education activations and community-led initiatives