Aimed to address the gender misrepresentation in San Francisco’s street names—where only 27% are named after women—and the fact that less than 10% of statues depict female figures.
To tackle this, creatively played on the word “misrepresentation” and coined the name "Ms. Representation Project," serving as both a clever wordplay and a powerful statement. The campaign was executed on Women’s Equality Day, rededicating San Francisco to its historic women who are too often overlooked.
DDB - San Fransisco, USA
We spray-chalked “Ms.” before male-named streets, along with our Instagram handle. The campaign turned words like “history” into “her-story,” highlighting women’s contributions to the city.
The guerrilla effort gained traction on social media, including Adweek, AdForum, San Francisco Egotist, and SF Weekly, and led to a city ordinance requiring 30% of statues to represent women.
In less than a week, we were picked up by a few Instagram influencers, and our page had 3,000+ followers.
We received a cease and desist order from the city of San Francisco. Thanks to SF Weekly for spreading the word.
After all, all press is good press.
The city ordinance in San Francisco passed requiring 30% of statues to represent women just one month later
SOCIAL
WEBSITE
The website served as a permanent spot for people to learn more about the women and the project overall. Users could also browse by San Francisco's map and submit stories of any influential women missing from our site.