Olympian Caster Semenya filed an appeal in the Human Rights court to overturn the World Athletics' ban on her running in events between 400 m and one mile – preventing her from defending her 800 m title. Caster was born a woman and is legally recognised as a woman but not allowed to run as a woman – unless she takes hormone drugs to suppress her testosterone.

Lux, a progressive beauty brand believes that women should not be judged for how they look and that no woman should ever be stripped of being a woman; Caster was born a woman and is legally recognised as a woman but not allowed to run as a woman and we wanted to rally the world to take a stand for this talented and remarkable Olympic Gold medalist and support her case against the World Athletics ban.

Lux believes that women should not be judged for how they look, and that no woman should ever be stripped of being a woman. Caster is proudly and unapologetically a woman. At birth, it was determined that she was female. She has been raised as a woman; lived as a woman and run as a woman. She is and always has been recognised by law as a woman. But World Athletics has banned her from running as who she is unless she takes testosterone-suppressing drugs.

Caster was born with hyperandrogenism and as she herself often says, ‘I am a woman. I was born this way”. The idea came from the insight that most champion athletes are born with extraordinary biology – it's what makes them perform like superheroes. But unlike Caster, they are celebrated, not reviled or banned. This animated film that dramatizes this in support of Caster‘s fight.

The strategy we employed for “Born This Way” was to create a provocative example of Lux’s brand mission - which is to inspire 50 million women by 2025 using content, partnerships and activations to help them rise above everyday sexist judgements and express their beauty and femininity unapologetically.

We had always been passionate about Caster's case. Despite having her gender questioned and being banned by World Athletics, she has always risen above judgements and cruel insults to fight her cause with dignity. So, we came up with the idea of an emotive animated film that dramatises her plight; with a call to sign a petition to overturn the World Athletics ban.

The idea for Born This Way came from the insight that most champion athletes are born with extraordinary biology. But unlike Caster, they are celebrated, not reviled or banned. We felt that an animated film would be the best medium to dramatize the extraordinary biology of these athletes and create the impact that would bring Caster’s story to life and get it noticed on the world stage. The film ends with a call to sign a petition to get World Athletics to overturn their ban.

The campaign was released in South Africa with a teaser followed by the main campaign just before the Tokyo Olympics during the pre-qualifier season. It was released as an integrated campaign and has managed to create waves In South Africa which is Caster's home country and across the world.

The ‘Born This Way’ campaign has captured global attention and raised massive support for Caster’s right to compete in the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Caster has already been interviewed about her cause and this campaign by Time magazine and the Guardian - with more interviews to follow as we head towards the Olympics. The news story has also been covered by leading sports journals, all key South Africa media and industry titles like Adweek, Ad Age and Campaign. As the clock ticks towards the Olympics, we’ll continue to push via a live petition that calls for World Athletics to overturn their ruling so that Caster can defend her 800 m gold medal and compete in other athletic events.

Globally, we’ve got more than 446M online readership, over 1 million estimated coverage views, and almost 70 press articles. In South Africa, we’ve achieved 33 pieces of media coverage and reached 81% of South Africa’s population. Overall, the PR value achieved is worth Euro 1 million+.

We’ve even managed to evoke a reaction from World Athletics which is a positive sign.