Finally, there’s a commercial for people living outside the perception the media creates, people with stress, mess, and lack of time. You know, people who are TIRED. Organic Balance’s new commercial, “Real Morning Report,” tells it like it is for women living and working the real world.
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Oscar-winning actor Leonardo DiCaprio has advocated for a number of worthy causes, from fighting climate change to the importance of conservation. Now, with a single tweet, the planetary steward shines a light on the colossal environmental impact of animal agriculture.
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Nina Gualinga is a force to be reckoned with. From the impending devastation of climate change, several activists have emerged who refuse to settle for the status quo. At only 22 years old, Nina Gualinga is one such activist. Born and raised in Sarayaku – an indigenous community of the Kichwa tribe nestled deep within the Ecuadorian Amazon – Nina’s powerful voice is backed by a chorus of indigenous resistance to protect the Amazon, the way of life in Sarayaku, and to keep the world hopeful. Oil extraction from reserves beneath the Amazon is a constant threat that forces the Kichwa tribe to always be on guard. These oil companies insist that drilling for oil will relieve Sarayaku from poverty. Nina explains that exploiting the land will, instead, threaten their way of life and impoverish them further. Nina is the fierce fresh face of eco-feminism – a movement defined by the connection between the domination of the environment and the exploitation of women, particularly in third world communities. And partnered with Amazon Watch, her strong campaign against the oil frontier expanding in the Amazon has attracted global attention. In 2012, the Sarayaku community won their fight for environmental and tribal […]
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Since it was first created in 2013, South Africa’s Black Mambas Anti-Poaching Unit has arrested six poachers, shut down five poacher camps, and reduced snaring (the practice of baiting and trapping animals) by 76% in the Balule Private Game Reserve. It will come as little surprise, therefore, that the 26-member ranger unit, comprised mainly of women, has been honored by the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) with its highest environmental prize — the Champions of the Earth Award.
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To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the 1995 UN Conference on Women in Beijing, MAKERS is featuring 20 incredible women who participated in the largest ever international gathering of women. Yang Lan, a television journalist and entrepreneur, is the co-founder and chairperson of the Sun Media Group, a Hong Kong-based multimedia company. Yang created the first current-event program in China, and has been a successful media personality in China since her days as a university student. Often compared to Oprah Winfrey, Yang has built a substantial media empire that includes the television shows “Yang Lan One on One and Her Village,” as well as an online magazine and website that attracts nearly 200 million Chinese women a month. In 1995, Yang was a graduate student studying at Columbia University in New York when she returned to Beijing over the summer to act as a master of ceremony for the Welcoming Ceremony of the UN Fourth World Conference on Women. Be sure to watch the trailer for the upcoming documentary, “Once and For All” and join the conversation with the hashtag #OnceAndForAll. Source: MAKERS Team
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Last summer, Procter & Gamble’s Always scored a big hit with its stereotype-crushing Like a Girl ad, which then got a slot on the Super Bowl. Now, the feminine products brand is back with another powerful commercial aimed at building the confidence of women. The new Leo Burnett ad, Unstoppable, is directed, like its predecessor, by documentarian Lauren Greenfield. And it features a diverse group of girls and young women talking about the limitations they’ve experienced as a result of social norms.
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The great whales are indicators species that have a lot to say about marine and coastal biodiversity, according to Lisa Bassett, author and professor at the University of Oregon School of Communication and Journalism. Today, seven out of 13 species of great whales are listed as endangered or vulnerable because of commercial whaling (despite an international moratorium); ship strikes; oil and gas exploration; military sonar vessels; pollution; disease, and climate change,” Bassett reminds us. As a professor of journalism, Bassett knew that by documenting an environmental problem, you can become part of the solution. This was the concept behind a four-week study abroad program offered by the University of Oregon (OU), entitled Nature & Culture: Multimedia Storytelling in Uruguay. This astonishing and exciting program focuses on the environment, traditional cultures, sustainability and conservation. The flagship program occurred in 2013, when Bassett led a group of UO students to Uruguay to create a multimedia project entitled The Route of the Whale. The project explored the route from its beginning in the hillside town of Piriapolis to the Brazilian border at Chuy. The students investigated environmental issues and solutions to those issues, in marine biology, conservation and sustainability. They did their work both in the classroom and in […]
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A cable company in Costa Rica has decided to use it’s most valuable public advertising space (which is what we meant by “prime time”) not to promote itself, but to promote local, women-run businesses in the name of female empowerment. Claro® is the company, and ‘Signs Of Progress’ is the name of this awesome campaign seeking to give Costa Rican women a place in society that elevates their economic status.
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In celebration of the all-female focus in front of and behind the camera, the filmmakers turned the cameras on themselves, capturing their transformational journey, and asking the questions, “What would it look and feel like to live in a women’s world? And what would it be like to live in a world where we hear every day from incredible, inspiring women about what women can do?”
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The philosophy of caring for the whole family pays off At the end of Mass at San Jose Parish 20 years ago, an announcement: Anyone with sewing skills wishing to take part in a little handcrafting workshop should meet with Sister Bernice in the parish hall. To the amazement of Susan Matteucci (pictured, below), a bright-eyed young organizer from Chicago who was looking to help empower low-income women, 75 women showed up. What grew from that meeting was a small sewing cooperative of about 35 women that met two days a week in the parish hall. Their first paying jobs were assembling women’s shirts for the MarketPlace Handwork of India catalog and sewing Pendleton blankets into “doggy vestidos” for a Santa Fe company that exported them to Japan. In 1996, they moved into a Quonset hut near the church. And in 2005, they moved to their current location on Fourth Street north of downtown. Over the years, Southwest Creations Collaborative grew into a $1.5 million-a-year business with clients around the country and around the world. Any small manufacturing business that survives for 20 years deserves a party, and in 2014 the company celebrated two decades in business with a fiesta. […]
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