River Island has recently been flooding my Youtube adverts, a loud and bright advertisement featuring a diverse range of models and many catchy slogans. Upon looking further into this, I found that this is River Island’s huge new campaign that looks to tackle societies labels and empower minority groups.

At first, I thought they were suggesting a John Lewis Kids-type idea, removing of gender tags from their clothes and maybe even mixing the traditional ‘female’ and ‘male’ floors, this really excited me as it would have been a huge step for gender inclusivity and acceptance. I was a tad disappointed when I saw the real proposal, my mind having thought they would do something so revolutionary, however I do still see it as better than nothing. 

The real plan is to celebrate their 30^th anniversary through a celebratory campaign, celebrating diversity by donating money to a charity, ‘Ditch The Label’ and producing a range of T-shirts that spread this message. In addition, the photos that go alongside the campaign are colourful and fun, covered by bold statements such as ‘100% woman’ and ‘Do Not Shrink.’ I’m not sure if they are the best or most original statements I’ve ever heard, however they are short, catchy and do the job nicely.

I think the campaign is brilliant, it celebrates so many different ranges of diversity. Tackling body positivity, gender issues as well as even Islamaphobia. I think the message is so important and I fully support any campaigns that want to bring awareness to such issues.