This Is Hands Down the Most Beautiful Super Bowl Commercial This Year

During Sunday's Super Bowl, just as many people will be tuning in for the commercials as for the actual game itself. And while "sexy hamburgers" and "hilarious candy bars" might take center stage in between plays, this new ad from feminine hygiene company Always is using its multimillion-dollar time slot for something a bit more substantial: destroying the negative connotations of doing something "like a girl."

The idea started by simply asking: "When did doing something 'like a girl' become an insult?"

Take a look:

As the commercial clearly demonstrates, years of negative social conditioning have led people to think "running like a girl" looks like this:

When, in reality, it looks more like this:

Or, as one girl responded when asked, "What does it mean to you when I say 'run like a girl?'"

"It means: Run as fast as you can."

The campaign actually started in June 2014 with a longer video released on YouTube that went viral and helped to launch Always' #LikeAGirl campaign that "aims to help girls, especially as they enter puberty, feel proud and confident when they do things #LikeAGirl," according to a company press release. Always also conducted a survey study with data collection company Research Now that unveiled some worrying statistics, including:

More than half of girls (about 1 out of 2 or 56%) claimed to experience a drop in confidence at puberty.

The video should be cause for worry on its own, but these statistics are even worse. As the video and data demonstrate, by the time many girls hit puberty, they start to be conditioned to think doing something "like a girl" means doing something badly. But hopefully, this kind of video, especially when shown on a stage as large as the Super Bowl, will remind people that doing something "like a girl" should not be an insult.

"When people watch the video, we know it changes their perception of the phrase 'like a girl' — and it makes a difference for girls' confidence," Fama Francisco, vice president of Global Always said in a statement. 

"We feel so strongly about this, that we're now taking this message to a bigger stage, the Super Bowl, so even more people can join us to champion girls' confidence and change the meaning of 'like a girl' from an insult into something positive and amazing."

h/t Huffington Post