New campaign warns about 'missing out' on women's sports

A new campaign called #ThoEstàsPerdent aims to promote a greater coverage of sportswomen in the media, and help progress towards full equality, while breaking gender stereotypes in the industry and society.

The campaign is an initiative of the Catalan Audiovisual Council (CAC), the authority that regulates audiovisual communication in Catalonia, with government sports agencies, the Catalan Institute of Women (ICD), and the Catalan Media Corporation (CCMA). 

The ads for the #ThoEstàsPerdent campaign feature top Catalan sportswomen, such as swimmer Mireia Belmonte, motorcyclist Laia Sanz, footballer Alexia Putellas, basketball player Laia Palau, and athlete Maria Vicente. 

The ads will appear on 86 media outlets around the country, including television channels, radio stations, news agencies, and both the general and sports press, with the aim of showing that women's sports are also capable of attracting large audiences.

#YouAreMissingOut gesture

In the ads, the female athletes cover half their faces, which is the campaign's symbolic gesture to show that not following women's sport means many people are missing half of the sports coverage, hence the name #ThoEstàsPerdent (YouAreMissingOut).

The institutions behind the campaign have contacted sports clubs and federations and athletes, both male and female, to call on them to adopt and promote the gesture as a way of giving their support to the initiative.

During the campaign's launch on Friday, three-time European basketball champion, Laia Palau, said "it's important to back the creation of female sporting examples," adding that "when I began, I didn't know I could be a basketball player and earn a living from it."

The campaign's manifesto signed by the 86 media outlets that will feature its ads proposes giving more visibility to female athletes, advancing towards equal coverage of male and female sports, and avoiding gender stereotypes in sports coverage.