Secret continues push for women’s equality with new initiative

Secret Deodorant is continuing its push for women’s equality by making a new commitment.

In order to create more opportunities for women in music, the brand announced a pledge to feature 100% women-made music in all of its future campaigns.

The Cincinnati-based company will enlist female singers and songwriters to create tracks for all marketing efforts beginning in 2020.  

In addition, Secret is also partnering with Women In Music, a nonprofit that looks to educate, empower and advance women in the music industry. The brand will offer 250 aspiring women musicians access to female mentors, the company said.

“As a brand for women, we consistently strive to elevate other women in all we do. But when it comes to the production of music for our campaigns, it has frankly been a struggle to do so, as women are so significantly underrepresented in the music industry,” Sara Saunders, the associate brand director of Secret at P&G, said. “We want to change that. We’ve heard from women that there’s one thing that can make all the difference in their careers, and that’s access to other women in the industry. Secret is proud to team up with Women in Music — the music industry's leading non-profit working toward gender equality — to enable to just that. And we’ll continue to support those women by exclusively enlisting all-female music teams in the production of Secret campaigns.”

Through this partnership, the brand also is kicking off a talent search through which women in music can land various opportunities to help heighten their profiles and build valuable connections, the company said.

“Breaking into such a male-dominated industry was not easy; I consider myself incredibly lucky to have had strong female mentors who really helped me to navigate the industry as a woman,” Jessie Reyez, singer, songwriter and new brand partner of Secret, said. “It is a huge move by Secret to not only commit to elevating women in music via its creative efforts, but to tangibly enable the connections and mentorships that are so valuable to aspiring female artists.”

Aspiring artists and songwriters must share their own take on Secret’s “All Strength, No Sweat” brand anthem via Instagram. Further information can be found on the brand’s website.

“We are thrilled to have a brand like Secret working with us to make the music industry a more equitable, diverse and inclusive community,” Nicole Barsalona, the president of Women in Music said. “In our study with Berklee Institute of Creative Entrepreneurship, we found that mentored women earn more money, express greater satisfaction with their jobs, and were more likely to feel they were where they should be in their careers. Our partnership with Secret allows us to offer meaningful mentorship opportunities so that more women have a chance at that kind of transformational change.”

Also, to coincide with the new campaign, Secret will launch its new Dry Sprays, which provide advanced sweat and odor protection for up to 48 hours.

“We’re committed to supporting women in music, from protecting them against sweat as they take the stage to helping them forge the connections that are so critical to making progress,” added Saunders. “After all, there are many things that women in the music industry have to sweat, but we believe inequality should never be one of them.”