Despite gradual progress over the last decade, the portrayal of women in advertising is still frequently found to be reductive and derogatory. And the stats get worse at the intersection of race and gender: black female characters are seven times more likely than white female characters to be objectified in adverts. Working with one of the world’s biggest advertisers means we have the power and responsibility to create work that has a positive impact on society. We wanted to use our platform to create an empowering, authentic representation of women, demonstrating that successful advertising and positive representation are not mutually exclusive.

Black women are woefully underrepresented on our screens, despite their influence in consumer decision making. We wanted to reframe the story of Rapunzel to reflect the diversity of our audience today, through an advert that was both functional and representative. Our goal was to tell a story of empowerment that was absolutely rooted in the truth of the Prime customer experience: the enrichment it brings to peoples’ lives, and the freedom it affords them.

The ‘Prime changes everything’ campaign takes well known stories or moments in history and reimagines them for the better. The protagonists use the benefits of a Prime membership to overcome their challenges so they can nail it at life.

To prove the full value of Prime, we focused on an emotional benefit that was rooted in the truth of the Prime customer experience: the enrichment it brings to peoples’ lives, and the freedom it affords them.

Research with our customers showed that using Prime gave them a “nailed it'' feeling which changed the course of their day. So despite there being multiple benefits of a Prime membership, there was one singular feeling of nailing it.

To show the nailed it feeling, we set ourselves the creative task of applying Prime to well known historical and fictional stories, specifically to characters who you want to nail it and that have been historically misrepresented. Often they are the underdog: from a damsel in distress to a universally abhorred gorgon. We wanted to give them that ‘nailed it’ feeling that Prime affords them, allowing them to have agency and reshape their story.

In our version of Rapunzel, a traditionally white, patriarchal story is reclaimed as a tale of black female empowerment, with Prime in a supporting role. Instead of waiting for her prince, our Rapunzel is a savvy entrepreneur who uses Amazon Prime to rewrite her destiny, escaping the tower and creating her own hairdressing empire.

Rapunzel helped fuel conversation within the industry and on the wider world stage about the way we depict women, and in particular black women in advertising. The advert received over 18 million views on YouTube, and gained international acclaim from a range of voices; from Nicki Minaj sharing it on Instagram, to RaVal Davis, DEI contributor at Forbes Magazine, hailing it as ‘exactly the fairytale every girl needs’. The campaign was shared by a wide range of publications and sparked a global conversation on Twitter. This is just one step on a long path, but one we hope will make a difference for misrepresented audiences, and inspire others to make positive changes.