(NEW YORK, October 17, 2019) – Meredith’s PEOPLE, one of the world’s leading entertainment media brands, and Katie Couric Media, the media and production company founded in 2015 by award-winning journalist and producer Katie Couric, have teamed up to produce the weekly digital video series #SeeHer Story – featuring short digital vignettes of female trailblazers and rule breakers from the past 100 years to present day. The series celebrates the centennial anniversary of the passing of the 19th Amendment, which states that the rights of citizens to vote “shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on the account of sex.” Sponsoring the launch of the first 21 episodes of this year-long series is Renew Life, a digestive wellness brand that has put women’s health first for more than 20 years.
#SeeHer Story premieres Friday, October 18 on PEOPLE.com and on select digital platforms. It will also be featured in the print edition of PEOPLE, in the weekday morning newsletter Wake-Up Call with Katie Couric, on Katie Couric’s social media platforms, on PeopleTV’s entertainment show PEOPLE Now, as well as on PEOPLE Now Weekend, which airs across all Meredith-owned stations including Atlanta, Phoenix, St. Louis, Nashville, and Las Vegas. #SeeHer Story is part of Meredith’s proud ongoing support of the Association of National Advertisers’ (ANA) #SeeHer, a movement to increase the accurate portrayal of women and girls in advertising and media. Since its launch in 2016, SeeHer has become the leading industry voice for gender equality in media.
Created and narrated by Couric, who is on the Advisory Board of the Association of National Advertisers’ (ANA) #SeeHer initiative, the series celebrates extraordinary women from all walks of life. The debut digital video features legendary screen and stage actress/singer Dame Julie Andrews, who served as Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations International Fund for Women supporting the advancement of women in developing countries, adopted two daughters from Vietnam, and was an early supporter of LGBTQ rights long before her role in “Victor/Victoria” turned her into a gay icon. Other trailblazing women who are being recognized for their achievements in #SeeHer Story include Wilma Mankiller, the first woman elected to serve as Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, General Ann Dunwoody, the first female United States four-star General, and Ruby Bridges, the first African American student to integrate an elementary school in the southern United States.
“From our popular ‘Women Changing the World’ franchise to the new #SeeHer Story video series, PEOPLE is committed to creating content franchises and features that empower women,” said Will Lee, Senior Vice President, Digital, Meredith Entertainment Group. “We are delighted to partner with Katie Couric – a woman who broke the glass ceiling in broadcast news journalism — to celebrate these outstanding changemakers.”
“#SeeHer Story celebrates the important contributions of bold women from the past one hundred years who have changed our country forever,” said Couric. “We hope recognizing them and telling their stories will not only give them their due but will also inspire the next generation of leaders.” She added, “Together with Meredith and PEOPLE, I’m so excited to bring back the stories of women whose names you may know – and put those whose achievements are not as well-known – front and center so we can celebrate them as well.”
“We are genuinely thrilled to partner with Katie Couric and Meredith’s PEOPLE to shine the spotlight on these incredible women,” said Mariah Eckhardt, Vice President of Marketing, Renew Life. “At Renew Life we are committed to helping women by being their strong advocate when it comes to finding health and wellness solutions, which is why we are proud to celebrate the women that didn’t settle for the status quo and pushed the boundaries to make a positive impact on our world.”
Meredith, which reaches a monthly audience of 150 million UVs, and the PEOPLE brand, which reaches a monthly audience of 70 million UVs (source: comScore), reflect the true face of the American woman and is committed to the accurate representation of women on all its platforms.
About PEOPLE
Meredith’s PEOPLE revolutionized personality journalism when it launched as a weekly in 1974 with a mission to celebrate extraordinary people doing ordinary things and ordinary people doing extraordinary things. Ubiquitous and still at the center of pop culture more than 45 years later, the PEOPLE brand is accessible across all media and platforms (print, digital, video, OTT, mobile, social) bringing more than 100 million consumers a unique mix of breaking entertainment news, exclusive photos, video, unparalleled access to the red carpet, celebrities, and in-depth reporting on the most compelling newsmakers of our time. An essential component of PEOPLE’s editorial vision remains human interest stories, which touch and often mirror the lives of our passionate audience. ComScore ranks the PEOPLE/Entertainment Weekly Digital Network No. 1 in the entertainment news category. PeopleTV, the advertiser-supported OTT streaming service from PEOPLE and Entertainment Weekly that launched in 2016, features original series and specials focusing on celebrity, red carpet, pop culture, lifestyle and human-interest stories. PEOPLE is an award-winning 24/7 news organization headquartered in NYC with reporters worldwide. For more information visit PEOPLE.com and follow @people on Twitter and Instagram, @peoplemag on Facebook, and the PEOPLE channel on YouTube and on Snapchat’s Discover.
About KATIE COURIC MEDIA
At Katie Couric Media, we are creating high-quality content in collaboration with purpose-driven brands, highlighting the important issues impacting people globally. Through a newsletter, podcast, and premium video, Katie will inform, educate, and entertain her 100 million fans, all in partnership with brands that care about changing the world as much as she does. It’s a new model—an iconic journalist partnering with the world’s leading brands to drive meaningful conversation on the issues that matter most now.
About RENEW LIFE and THE CLOROX COMPANY
Renew Life is part of The Clorox Company (NYSE: CLX), a leading multinational manufacturer and marketer of consumer and professional products with approximately 8,800 employees worldwide and fiscal year 2019 net sales of $6.2 billion. Clorox is a signatory of the United Nations Global Compact, a community of global leaders committed to sustainability. The company has been broadly recognized for its corporate responsibility efforts, included on CR Magazine’s 2019 100 Best Corporate Citizens list, Barron’s 2019 100 Most Sustainable Companies, the Human Rights Campaign’s 2019 Corporate Equality Index and the 2019 Bloomberg Gender Equality Index, among others. In support of its communities, The Clorox Company and its foundations contributed about $12 million in combined cash grants, product donations and cause marketing in fiscal year 2019. For more information, visit TheCloroxCompany.com, including the Good Growth blog, and follow the company on Twitter at @CloroxCo.
About SeeHer
Despite strides made in recent years to accurately portray women and girls in media, gender bias persists throughout advertising and entertainment. The average age, race, and body type of women depicted in media today still represent only a small fraction of the female population. SeeHer is the leading global movement for gender equality in media. Led by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), SeeHer is a collective of leading marketers committed to creating and supporting content that portrays women and girls as they really are. It launched in June 2016 in partnership with The Female Quotient (The FQ). To help marketers benchmark success, ANA’s SeeHer developed the Gender Equality MeasureTM (GEMTM), the first research methodology that quantifies gender bias in ads and programming. GEMTM shows that content that portrays females accurately dramatically increases purchase intent and brand reputation, increasing return on investment (ROI) by as much as 30 percent. GEMTM won the 2017 ESOMAR Research Effectiveness Award, and the methodology became the industry standard which led to a global rollout in 2018. Visit www.SeeHer.com and follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter @SeeHer2020.
CONTACTS:
PEOPLE: Marnie Perez, Julie Farin – PEOPLEPR@peoplemag.com; 212 522 630
KATIE COURIC MEDIA: Eden Haile, for KCM – eden.haile@uegworldwide.com; 917 595 3165
RENEW LIFE: Angie Block – angie@pdcpr.net; 415 336 8068
