SPORT ENGLAND has launched a ground-breaking new campaign – ‘This Girl Can’ – in a bid to tempt women back into sport.

A prime-time TV advert was aired for the first time last week during Coronation Street. It showed women and girls doing their thing no matter how they do it and how they look.

It included punchlines like ‘Sweating like a pig, feeling like a fox’ and ‘I kick balls, deal with it’.

The TV advertising will be backed up by a campaign on billboards and on cinema and shopping centre screens to put images of real women exercising on the national stage. It will also use social media to start a debate about attitudes to female sport.

Sport England research reveals that fewer women than men play sport regularly – two million fewer 14 to 40-year-olds in total. Despite this, 75 per cent say they want to be more active.

Jennie Price, chief executive of Sport England, said: “We found out by talking to women of all ages up and down the country that what’s stopping them is fear – fear of judgment. Whether that’s about how they look, whether they are any good at it, or feeling guilty about spending time on themselves.

“This Girl Can is a celebration of all the women who are finding their confidence to exercise: it’s an attitude, and a call to action for all women to do the same.”

John Stevens, chief executive of Active Gloucestershire, said: “The ‘This Girl Can’ campaign aligns with our strategic objective to increase the number of women who play sport and take part in physical activity on a regular basis, which supports our mission to get MORE PEOPLE, MORE ACTIVE, MORE OFTEN.

“In addition we will be supporting the campaign by launching a female-only coach development project and continuing to ring fence various funds for projects that focus in increasing female participation.”

For more information on the campaign, go to www.thisgirlcan.co.uk.