A discount usually means getting something for less money. But what happens when the thing being marked down is a woman’s value in society? Pregnant Then Screwed, a UK charity campaigning against discrimination faced by mothers, turns this familiar retail symbol into an uncomfortable statement about the gender pension gap. Its new campaign, ‘Thanks for your service*’, places giant neon ‘33% OFF’ labels over women’s faces, highlighting how years of caring for children can leave women with significantly less money in retirement.
The problem often begins long before retirement. According to Pregnant Then Screwed, women in the UK retire with pension pots averaging 33% smaller than men’s. Pregnancy, childcare and other caring responsibilities can interrupt careers, reduce working hours and limit opportunities for higher earnings. These changes also mean fewer years of pension contributions, leaving women financially disadvantaged long after their children have grown up. While the effects build gradually throughout a working life, they can be difficult to see in everyday conversations about motherhood. The charity wanted to make that hidden cost impossible to ignore.
Created under the creative direction of Gemma Phillips, the campaign borrows one of advertising’s most recognisable visual devices: the retail discount sticker. Bright starbursts are designed to grab attention and make products look cheaper, but here they carry a much more uncomfortable message. By placing ‘33% OFF’ over women’s faces, the campaign draws a direct comparison between discounted products and the way society undervalues mothers. The title, ‘Thanks for your service*’, adds another layer of irony. What initially sounds like an expression of appreciation becomes a reminder of the financial cost women can pay for caring for others.
The campaign brings this idea to life through portraits, street photography and receipt-style graphics. Photographer Sane Seven captures women whose faces are partly hidden behind oversized starbursts in bright green, yellow, orange and magenta. The labels resemble the promotional signs found in shop windows, making the images instantly recognisable while creating an unsettling contrast with the people underneath. Other photographs show women holding the signs on city streets, including mothers going about their everyday lives with children. The campaign also uses shopping receipts to list experiences such as pregnancy, returning to work, nursery fees and redundancy, before revealing the financial outcome as a 33% reduction in pension savings. A lifetime of personal and professional decisions is presented like a bill, with women left to pay the price.
The campaign is running across billboards, print, social media and street activity in seven UK cities, including London, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Manchester and Birmingham. Public figures and supporters such as journalist Anna Whitehouse, television personality Ashley James and skincare expert Caroline Hirons have also helped bring attention to the message. The campaign builds on Pregnant Then Screwed’s wider work to expose the motherhood penalty. Its earlier ‘Career Shredder’ campaign used a giant shredder to destroy CVs, drawing attention to the professional opportunities women can lose through pregnancy and maternity discrimination. While that campaign focused on careers being damaged, ‘Thanks for your service*’ shows how the consequences can continue for decades, eventually affecting financial security in retirement.
What makes the campaign effective is how quickly it turns an abstract financial statistic into something people can understand. A pension gap can feel distant, particularly to people who are still years away from retirement. A giant ‘33% OFF’ sticker covering a woman’s face makes the inequality immediate. Pregnant Then Screwed could have relied on charts and financial explanations, but instead it uses the visual language of everyday shopping to show how mothers are devalued. The campaign leaves viewers with an uncomfortable question: if caring for the next generation comes at such a significant financial cost, who should be responsible for paying it?
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