Recent years have seen a 251% increase in reports of misogyny and oppression against women on the internet, according to SaferNet, Brazil’s largest organization advocating for human rights in the virtual environment. When it comes to football broadcasts, female sportscasters are one of the main targets of haters on social media.

LAY’S was responsible for introducing the first female sportscaster to cover a UEFA Champions League match in Brazil. Supporting women in football is already part of the brand’s purpose.

How could we prove that offensive comments directed at female sportscasters on social media are purely misogynistic and have nothing to do with their qualifications?

We knew that the match between Spain and Brazil would potentially attract a record-breaking audience, and football fans would certainly engage with the match on social media. It was the perfect scenario for conducting a social experiment through a radio broadcast.

A social experiment during a football match radio broadcast with a female sportscaster using a male voice and a male pseudonym to see if the audience response on social media would still direct offensive comments at her.

By using AI-based software to change the female sportscaster's voice in real-time, we induced football fans during a match with a record-breaking audience (Spain vs. Brazil) to answer our question.

The pseudonym allowed us to use social listening to identify what the audience was saying about 'him' on social media and arrived at the final answer.

To create shareable content, we posted a video featuring our female sportscaster revealing that zero offensive comments were directed at her during the social experiment.

The core target for this campaign was Brazilian football fans. Both the potential misogynists and the good ones.

It was all but certain that Brazilian football fans would be discussing the match between Spain and Brazil on social media, making it the perfect scenario to get a response from this audience.

Data gathering: we used social listening to identify what the audience was saying about our female sportscaster's male pseudonym on social media.

After conducting a social experiment with potentially misogynistic football fans, it was time to get support from the good ones.

That's why we decided to post a video revealing the social experiment after the match, encouraging the football community to support it by sharing it on social media.

By analyzing a range of Brazilian male sportscasters' voices, we identified a target voice to train the AI-based software that we developed to change our female sportscaster's voice in real time.

On March 26, 2024, Elaine Trevisan, an ESPN sportscaster, covered the match between Spain and Brazil using a male voice and the male pseudonym Elias Taverins on a radio broadcast.

The pseudonym allowed us to use social listening to identify what the audience was saying about 'him' on social media.

On March 28, 2024, when discussion of the match was over, LAY'S and Elaine posted a video revealing this social experiment, which had brought zero offensive comments directed at Elias Taverins.

Then, the football community supported it by sharing on social media. Football players, sportscasters, sports influencers, fans and more.

By courageously investing in this social experiment, LAY'S proved that the offensive comments directed at female sportscasters are purely misogynistic and have nothing to do with their qualifications, inspiring women in sports to move forward.

The social experiment was organically shared by major sports figures in Brazil, including five players from the women's national football team, sportscasters, sports influencers, coaches, and fans, making this the LAY'S campaign with the highest engagement ever in Brazil.

We also achieved 80% more interactions than our goal, millions of impressions, and, of course, encountered some sexist comments on the post that announced the reveal, which only reinforced the importance of the social experiment.