In a fast-growing world dominated by men, we have to fight for our rights, but we have to do it smartly. To complain about the situation will not take us too far. We need to see what we can do to bring ourselves to the top. Yes, it is true, we have to work harder, and it takes us longer, but, if you go back in time, to the very beginning—the beginning of your existence where everything started, yes, at the moment where millions of those little ‘fellas’ tried to find their way to the egg cell. In the end, it takes only one to make a baby, but it is a tough journey that just a few sperms survive. But that is not the main point here.

 

"Female sperm" (a sperm with an X chromosome) was found to be slower but would live longer than "male sperm." So it's all about the race to the egg. When the male sperm is exhausted and dies, is when the female power can shine.  

 

In the Harvard Business Review article from December 30, 2020, by Jack Zinger and Joseph Folkman, research shows that women are better leaders during a crisis. Well, now that makes sense, right? When men, the fast runners, get tired on the way and die, women are still full of energy to go all the way. One more time, it's all about the race. But that is not all; those who worked with them also rated women as better leaders compared to men. But I am not writing here to say that women are better than men. I want to bring across that we all have to see our strengths from what has been perceived as a flaw or weakness. As you saw, my name is Marjorieth; yes Marjorie with th, and my last name is Sanmartin, yes written together. So you could say that this is complicated, and it is. I always have to spell my name. On the other side, if you Google my name, I am the only one with this name. Cool, isn't it? Thank you, mum.  

 

I am Venezuelan, half Spanish, living in Germany. Usually, you would ask yourself: what the hell is she doing there? And how can this crazy Latin woman live in a country where every millimeter, sorry, nanometre counts? In a country where you are already late, if you are just on time. Well, because I am different and this is not my striving, it is my strength. But I didn't always feel like this; I was lucky to find mentors on my way.

 

When I was studying at the Miami Ad School in Miami, my storyboard teacher taught me something that I will never forget: See Differently. See the potential where others don't. Then show them how it's done. He also told me that I was better than I thought. I guess we all have the little book from Paul Arden, It's not how good you are, it's how good you want to be. Those lines help me to build my self-esteem and my direction. But now that we are talking about forming and direction, Ron Seichrist, who I had the honor to have as a teacher and since then I secretly call him my advertising father, used to tell us don't always go the same way home or take the same road to come to the school. Like this, you will never know what you are missing from the street next to it. Listen to music you thought you wouldn't like and try to find what makes it appealing to some. Be curious and try to do things you thought you couldn't do. In that way, I became a female Pablo Picasso because he once said: "I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it."

 

When I came to Germany, all the art directors studied design for 5 years at the university, and me? I did 2 years at MAS. In a group of 100% males, I worked for male-targeted brands, such as, Lamborghini and Audi, between fast cars I worked on Playboy magazine. I always felt they all had better skills than me as designers, but, never having the feeling, they were better than me. But then I took a moment to think, what do I have that they don't? I am not talking about a pair of boobs. I was better in conception.

 

The other thing was the urge to produce something while still needing to catch up with my Photoshop skills. Then something happened. There was a briefing for the new Lamborghini Murcielago Roadster for a print ad; we were briefed on writing headlines. So I thought this is my chance. I was writing headlines day and night three days straight. Looking at magazines and all the information we had from the catalog. And, of course, asking - how it is supposed to be - stupid question. The final day came, and my CD selected two from my headlines and some from the other creatives. The big surprise: the client bought just my two headlines. I could not believe it. So here again, I turn my strive into my strength. And this time, I am not talking about my copywriting skills; I am talking about the fact that I was a woman; why? I asked questions that my male colleagues won't ask, and I wrote insights that men would not think of. For one headline, I wondered, so, this car has 6 gears? They looked at each other and answered: yes, but this..., seriously? But that's what I made out of it: From 0 to 100 in 3.5 seconds, and five more gears to go.  

 

The other line is my favorite and theirs as well: I asked if I could have instead of one yellow Lamborghini Murcielago Roadster, two of them in the print visual. They were like sure, but why? It doesn't make any sense to have two times the same car in one ad. So I presented my second headline: Every man's dream: Twins. My senior AD laughed and placed both Lamborghini's next to each other. After that, my CD asked me if I wanted to be a copywriter; I answered that I was sorry, but I was busy learning how to be a good Art Director.

 

LIA asked me to showcase an ad that we have done lately. This one is also about woman empowerment, but it's quite different. As I mentioned before, I am living and working in Germany; one of my main clients is Henkel Beauty, one of the best and oldest beauty brands worldwide. We were asked to make a new Taft hair spray campaign because they wanted to re-launch it with a new design and a new formula.  

 

Women empowerment is deeply linked in the DNA of Taft. That is because of their iconic TV commercial of the 80s. Every single German knows it and its story. For the first time in a commercial, we see a business WOMAN traveling in a private jet around the globe - always looking great with perfect hair. No matter how the weather conditions are. That's why the product is also named "Drei Wetter Taft" (Three-Weather-Taft). But after the one iconic film, they replicated it over and over again for centuries - one version was even starring Heidi Klum. But as you can imagine, the brand had lost its magic, because, well, the story was told and nowadays a business woman isn't even a story at all. It’s the new normal, Hallelujah! And let's face it, we don't use as much hair spray as in the 80s, and we also know that it doesn't matter how good a product is; we still don't look as good as in the morning, especially not after going through rain, wind, and burning sun. So what did we do? Exactly, we reshot the spot again - but with a twist.  The modern (business) woman doesn't take herself too seriously; that's why we showed this time how this trip would look like, but in an exaggerated and fun way. Her hair gets wet in Hamburg, the wind makes her look scruffy in Munich and after fixing her hair over and over again the burning sun of Rome lightens her hair up, ok yes it was burning, we are still making advertising here.

 

Lots of fun, but you can imagine the insecurities about going this way. We destroy hair in a German beauty TV hair spray spot. But that was exactly what the brand needed for a refreshing re-launch. Because what represented the businesswoman in the 80s doesn’t represent the humoristic, self-secure woman of today, yes, we woman of today can laugh about ourselves.

 

For an authentic old-school look with real grain we also processed the commercial from digital to film and digitalized it back again. We did the same with print, and we even created "analog GIFs" by exposing more than 150 frames of the film to real Polaroids.

 

In the end, all the work, the fight for the idea, and the client's trust paid off. People even called the Service hotline of the client just to tell them how great and refreshing the new campaign is.

 

Isn't that amazing?

 

So, I guess the last couple of months weren't that bad for this businesswoman right here.