“Femvertising”: a term used to describe mainstream commercial advertising that attempts to promote female empowerment. These past few weeks, multiple brands have attempted to market themselves to a female audience, but instead they invited intense scrutiny. Brands claiming to hear women’s voices more often than not end up selling sexist ideals packaged as feminism, but women have had enough.

For example, Sky Sports’ response to the increase in female sports fans was to create “Halo”, a female-targeted TikTok channel. The account lasted less than a week before rightful pressure from viewers led Sky Sports to delete it and release an apology statement. Sky Sports described the newly made account as the “lil sis” of the broadcaster, presenting women as a demographic clueless about sports who need help from their “big brothers” to explain it. The content of the account only further promoted these patronizing perceptions of female sports fans.

One post included a clip of Manchester City players Erling Haaland and Rayan Cherki celebrating after a goal against Bournemouth, accompanied by the caption “How the matcha + hot girl walk combo hits” in a hot pink font. People quickly started realizing the blatant misogyny of the account, with one user commenting, “Can’t believe this is what you think female sports fans like,” to which Halo responded, “Can’t believe you brought that kind of energy”.

For a brand claiming to “champion female athletes”, it is interesting that they respond by immediately dismissing fans’ valid concerns with the account, further proving that women are not taken seriously in sports. These types of posts are incredibly reductive and stereotypical. Women do not need sparkly pink fonts and lazy attempts at using trends like “hot girl walk” to understand sports.

Eventually, Sky Sports removed the account and issued a statement. “We’ve listened. We didn’t get it right. As a result, we’re stopping all activity on this account. We’re learning and remain as committed as ever to creating spaces where fans feel included and inspired.” That did not prevent various women on TikTok from creating a trend in response to the account of various clips of women in sports, whether performing or as part of the fans, paired with the caption “dear Sky Sports, we were never confused about sports.”

Women do not need a separate space to engage with sports; they just need better representation. By creating a female-targeted account, it frames the general Sky Sports account to be exclusively for men. Displaying this unnecessary sexist segregation does not help but rather harms female sports fans' image. I do not deny that there are differences in traditionally male and female spaces, but Sky Sports could have made their original account more inclusive, for example, by posting more on female sports instead of creating an entirely separate account that only further isolates women from sports.

Unfortunately, the sexist marketing does not stop there. Monster Energy, the popular energy drink brand, has committed itself to launching a “female-focused” energy drink brand in 2026, called FLRT. It will sell different flavors, including “Strawberry Fling” and “Berry Tempting”. On their website, FLRT claims it was “born from a simple idea: energy should be as vibrant, fearless, and fun as the women who drink it”. Some of its intended selling points include that it is sugar-free, boosts collagen, and supports skin and hair health. The can features different pastel colors and an abstract flower as the logo of Monster’s “sister brand”.

Already, the brand has received criticism for its gendered marketing. One user on TikTok wrote, “[It] never once occurred to me that monster was a “masculine” drink.” Another user) filmed her pink Monster can, sarcastically captioning the video, “I’m so happy Monster made FLRT for us girls! This is too manly and scary for me”. Again, the problem here is creating an unnecessary separate brand, exclusively for women. Many women already drink Monster. What is, is creating a different brand with a different name, ditching the name Monster and replacing it with FLRT, as if the word Monster was far too aggressive to be associated with a female audience.

FLRT, while possibly intending to give women higher user satisfaction, does the opposite by reducing them to overused stereotypes. By advertising the drink to be “your new crush in a can” and “love at first sip”, it sends the message that romance, flirting, and crushes are the highlights of the female experience and are all a woman is interested in. The aesthetic of their cans does not do the brand any justice either, reducing femininity to the same usual minimalist design. Monster does not need abstract daisies and light colors to get women to drink their energy drinks.

Brands like these frame themselves as listening to women’s feedback and voices, but then consistently fail to meet their standards because ultimately, they know very little about what it means to truly be a woman. If 71% of creative directors behind these types of marketing are men, are we really surprised that these brands seem to mock us rather than represent us? The best way for an accurate representation is to get more women behind these brands, but until then, we will continue to complain and criticize every time a brand thinks of a new “girlboss” product to sell.