Empowerment overload

Toronto – In a biting satire of the present trend for femvertising, Canadian agency John St presents Jane St, an offshoot company dedicated to girl power-style advertising.

• Empowering advertising is having a cultural moment
• Jane St is an amusing take on the industry, highlighting its exploitative side

The film, which documents the opening of Jane St, sees the mock agency’s employees, including the amusingly titled ‘Chief Empowerment Officer’ and ‘Confidence Director’, outlining their business strategy and ethos in a perfect parody of the tropes of empowering advertising, such as how to capture a woman ‘in her natural element’.

Empowering people is an admirable feat, but is brought under scrutiny when used by brands as a selling tool. Jane St highlights this with its strange marketing campaigns for products that have no real connection to women, such as batteries and fast food, and a yoghurt brand featuring the hashtag #CultivateConfidence.