Karmarama's Powerful Spot Shows There Are No ‘Female Soldiers’ in the British Army

Karmarama, part of Accenture Interactive today announces its latest recruitment campaign for Capita for the British Army entitled ‘A Soldier is a Soldier’. The campaign shows how in the Army, soldiers are defined by their skills, not gender, and demonstrates that the Army is an inclusive employer with equal pay according to rank, and equal expectations for all soldiers.

Through the campaign, the Army want to show its ongoing commitment to addressing its gender balance and demonstrate that it’s not purely a combat focused environment. In the Army, you’re not defined as by your gender but by the skills you bring and how well you do the job. This year, the Army is looking to encourage more women to apply to join them with female representation currently at 9.8% in the British Army and 14.2% in the Army Reserves.

‘A Soldier is a Soldier’ is an integrated campaign across cinema, video-on-demand, radio, and social media. The 60” film, narrated by serving female soldiers, opens with a soldier pondering the question “what’s it like being a female soldier?” with the narrator explaining “I wouldn’t know” because in the Army, a soldier is a soldier. The real female soldiers’ voices narrate striking visuals, opening with a wound held together with stitches that spell out “good for a woman”’ as the narrator explains that “no-one calls me ‘good for a woman’ when I’m the one stitching them up.” 

Addressing stereotypes head on, the advert then cuts to ridiculous concepts of female-adapted Army equipment such as “beach body rations” and a rifle with an “easy-pull trigger for smaller hands”, outlining how these would never exist in the Army, before the voiceover goes on to speak about how there are no male or female signs on toilet doors or teams of women in the Army. 

Further adverts will run across social media and radio. The campaign was developed by Karmarama together with Capita for Capita and the British Army. 

Major General Sharon Nesmith, General Officer Commanding Army Recruiting and Initial Training Command said: “The Army is incredibly proud of the progress that has been made towards gender equality. Huge changes have taken place over the last few years, and we want to continue to make positive changes to attract and retain the best talent regardless of gender. We hope that ‘A Solider is a Soldier’ challenges people’s perceptions of female soldiers and highlights the incredible work all of our soldiers do, in order to inspire potential new recruits to consider Army jobs.”  

Siobhan Penrose, Head of Marketing for the British Army Recruiting Group, comments: “We’re proud to be launching a campaign with the Army that directly addresses our attitudes to diversity and inclusion. We hope to build on the success of previous campaigns and ultimately offer all soldiers a chance to reach their full potential through a great career in the British Army.”

Nik Studzinski, Chief Creative Officer at Karmarama said: ““Building on the foundations of our ‘This is Belonging’ campaign, ‘A soldier is a soldier’ further challenges perceptions some people may have of the Army. In this case, gender labelling. The most important thing in the Army is what kind of soldier you are. Not what gender you are. We’re proud to work with Capita and the British Army and driving further progress towards gender equality is something that’s really important to everyone at Karmarama.”

Support for ‘A Soldier is a Soldier’ also comes from a partnership with social media publisher, LADbible. The publishing group reaches two thirds of 18-34 year olds in the UK and half of their audience are female. LADbible Group also discovered that out of the first 100 images of soldiers on Google, 99% were male. Using these insights, they have created content featuring female soldiers sharing stories about their jobs and have ‘hacked’ google images to ensure more women are seen as soldiers when people search online. Their support will aim to redefine what it means to be a soldier amongst their young audience and drive a lasting impact on what young people see when considering the Army as a career.

‘A Soldier is a Soldier’ is the latest iteration in the long term ‘This is Belonging’ series, with this campaign showing how belonging means everyone’s’ potential and skills are spotted and valued. 

A Soldier is a Soldier launches on 22nd July 2021. The Army is recruiting Regular & Reserves now.

Search Army Jobs or follow the hashtag #ASoldierIsASoldier