Sainsbury’s, Barclays and University College London have all drawn on themes created by IWD site run by London business with no link to UN
Nobody owns International Women’s Day, but if you asked the 193 countries, countless businesses and NGOs that mark it each year, they would probably agree it has been popularised, defined and formalised by the United Nations.
The owner of the website “internationalwomensday.com”, a London-based marketing firm, disagrees. By selling merchandise, promoting a £160 lunch to awaken attenders’ “inner goddess” and creating a series of corporate partnerships, it has also seeded its annual themes with British brands and institutions that appear to have mistaken the site for the UN, the Guardian can reveal.
Organisations including Sainsbury’s, Barclays and University College London have all drawn on themes provided by internationalwomensday.com. When contacted by the Guardian, the UN distanced itself from the website, run by a company owned by Glenda Slingsby, a marketing executive.
The internationalwomensday.com site, owned by IWD Support Ltd, formerly Aurora Ventures (Europe) Ltd, has been running for more than two decades. During that time, language that identified the site as the product of a London marketing firm has been largely removed and it appears vague about its ownership and connection with UN-led efforts to celebrate International Women’s Day.
