NEW YORK – June 15, 2017 – The 3% Movement and Athena Film Festival have joined forces to create The Athena Advertising Awards, recognizing creative advertising that depicts strong, bold women from all walks of life.

For eight years, The Athena Film Festival, a joint initiative of the Athena Center for Leadership Studies at Barnard College and Women and Hollywood, has showcased inspiring films that celebrate the stories of remarkable, courageous women leaders. The launch of the Athena Advertising Awards will now recognize remarkable stories of women and girls told via the world’s most prevalent media: advertising.

“The depiction of women and girls in advertising has steadily been improving, thanks in large part to consumers’ ability to talk back to brands via social media,” says Kat Gordon, founder of The 3% Movement. “It’s time to celebrate brands and agencies that are demonstrating leadership and creating messages infused with ambition, courage, resilience, and moxie.”

“One of the primary goals of the Athena Film Festival is to challenge the way society views and values women,” says Kathryn Kolbert, the co-founder of the Athena Film Festival. “In many ways, those views and values are shaped by advertising. We could not be more excited to launch this new initiative to reward those brands and agencies that are elevating images and voices of bold, courageous women and girls.”

The Athena Advertising Awards competition is open to all North American brands and advertising agencies that have developed creative campaigns since January 2016 in six award categories: Film, Digital/Mobile, Social Marketing, Print, Events/Experiential, and Integrated Campaigns.

The Awards presentation will be on Nov 3, 2017 at The 3% Conference in New York City, before an audience of 1,000 male and female creative leaders. The Awards presentation will be replayed as part of the Athena Film Festival, February 22-25, 2018 at Barnard College, where winning ads will also be showcased.

Submissions will be accepted via the Film Freeway platform starting Thursday, June 15 and will end on Friday, Sept. 8. The link to submit is: https://filmfreeway.com/festival/AthenaAdAwards

About The 3% Movement

Started as a passion project to spotlight a huge business opportunity in advertising — the lack of female creative leadership and its impact on connecting with an overwhelmingly female marketplace — the 3% Conference has grown exponentially since its 2012 launch and has hosted events in 16 cities globally. For additional information about the 3% Conference please visit: http://3percentconf.com/. Kat Gordon, founder of The 3% Movement, has been called the “triple threat” of an entrepreneur, ad woman, and marketing to women expert and was named one of “30 Most Creative Women in Advertising” by Business Insider in 2016 and one of “Forty Over 40” women disrupting the world in 2014.

                                                                                                                

ABOUT THE ATHENA FILM FESTIVAL

Founded in 2011, the Athena Film Festival at Barnard College is a weekend of inspiring films that tell the extraordinary stories of strong, bold women leaders from all walks of life — stories of ambition, courage, resilience, and moxie. The four-day festival, which includes conversations with directors, producers and actors, as well as activities for filmmakers, will be held February 22-25, 2018 in NYC at Barnard College. The festival is a joint project of the Athena Center for Leadership Studies at Barnard College and Women and Hollywood. The Founding Sponsor of the Athena Film Festival is The Artemis Rising Foundation, Regina K. Scully, Founder and CEO.

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MEDIA CONTACTS:
The 3% Conference, White Book Agency
Nancy Vaughn
Phone: (305) 902-7172
Email: nancy@whitebookagency.com

Athena Film Festival, FRANK PR
Stephanie Davidson
Phone: (646) 861-0843
Email: stephanie@frankpublicity.com

Jeff McBride, FRANK PR
Phone: (646) 861-0843
Email: jeff@frankpublicity.com