After an unbearable year grieving where she believed she was “nothing”, she returned to her agency Badger and Winters and looked at the world through new eyes. She had a new purpose and that was to make a difference. A difference to the way women are portrayed in advertising, ie “stop the objectification of women.”

"People are really seeing that objectifying women is really up there with inequality of women,'' says Badger. "Sex sells, but you know the harm we're doing to women and the way men see women."

Badger decided that she would start a campaign, #WomenNotObjects, with the objective being to stop the objectification of women in marketing and advertising. She created two videos which went viral, demonstrating the effect and harm this causes women and also the way men see women. This included violence against women, increase in cosmetic surgery, and basic loss of self-esteem.

The impact was remarkable. Over 31 million views on YouTube and almost every media outlet covered the story. But the best part was the number of calls they received in support of this cause. After the success of the first two videos, the third is about to come out and show what the effect of objectifying women has on children, and as one child stated “It’s not ok to show women like that as it’s private.”

As an agency, Badger and Winters uses four filters to check if they are objectifying women:

• Props – Does this woman have a choice. Has she been reduced to a thing?

• Plastic - has this woman been retouched beyond human achievability?
• Parts – has this woman been reduced to a provocative body part?

• What if this woman was you mother, daughter or you?

But the easiest filter is empathy: if this was you in the ad, how would you feel?

It’s not only the right but smart thing to do. 91% of women say advertisers don’t understand them. There is real data on the harm to brands objectifying women does. From research with 2700 consumers, there was such a negative effect that the women said they would likely not want to have anything further with these brands.

"Advertising can do good and do harm. We can all make our lives have a reason and this is mine. It is my legacy to my three daughters - Lily, Sarah and Grace."

Please visit the website www.womennotobjects.com and sign the petition.