So, you wait months for the first ASA decision under the new gender stereotyping rules and then three come along all at once – two upheld (here and here), one not upheld (here). What a week. For my colleague's thoughts  on that, click here

But now seems the perfect time to highlight a campaign that seems to really challenge tired old gender stereotypes: it’s the new “Liberty Tales” ad from Guinness. 

With the men’s rugby world cup tournament kicking off in Japan next month, the Guinness ad ignores the men altogether and instead focuses on the evolution of women’s rugby in the host nation. The ad tells the story of how, back in the 1980s, a group of female players in Japan pursued their passion for rugby in the face of ridicule and pressure from society to conform to its expectations of them as wives and mothers. The players formed the Liberty Fields women’s rugby team and eventually went on to represent their country in the women’s rugby world cup. 

The ad is a timely celebration of women in sport, following on from a hugely successful women’s football world cup, and hopefully this is a sign of brands and society giving women in sport the platform they deserve after being largely overlooked by the mainstream media, compared to the men's teams at least, for far too long.