Welcome to the women in SPAM era. Credit to Laura Cameron for the acronym and bringing the concept to our collective attention!
From “PR Girly” to Cultural Strategist
For years, being labelled a “PR girly” came with a certain level of condescension attached to it. The phrase was often used to minimise women working across social media, PR, advertising and marketing, as though their careers revolved around aesthetics, events and posting on Instagram rather than strategy, influence and commercial growth.
Now, however, there seems to be a collective rebrand taking place, and honestly, it feels overdue.
And no, not the canned meat. SPAM as in Social Media, PR, Advertising and Marketing – the industries that shape modern culture, dictate trends, drive consumer behaviour and, increasingly, determine whether a business succeeds or disappears into irrelevance.
The funniest part is that women in these industries have always known how important the work is. It is everyone else who is only just catching up.
The industries that quietly run modern business
For years, careers in communications and brand were treated as secondary to the “serious” areas of business. Finance was serious. Tech was serious. Operations were serious. Meanwhile, women building communities, shaping narratives and generating demand were often reduced to being seen as “the social media girl” or “the PR girl.”
And yet, entire businesses now survive purely on perception.
A product can be average, but if the branding is strong, the founder is visible, the social strategy lands and the audience feels emotionally connected to it, people will buy in. Equally, a brilliant product with poor positioning and no cultural relevance can disappear overnight.
That is why the rise of SPAM as an identity feels so satisfying. It finally frames these industries as what they actually are: powerful commercial functions that influence how people think, shop, interact and aspire.
Women in SPAM understand influence better than most
Women in SPAM are not simply “posting content.” They are building influential ecosystems.
They understand audience psychology in a way most executives still do not. They know how trends form, how internet culture shifts, how public perception changes and how quickly brands can become culturally irrelevant if they fail to evolve. They understand that attention is now one of the most valuable currencies in the world.
In many ways, women working across social media, PR, advertising and marketing have become the architects of modern relevance.
The most successful brands today are not necessarily the ones with the biggest budgets or the most advanced products. They are the ones that understand storytelling, community and visibility. They are the brands people want to associate themselves with online. They are the brands that know how to create emotional connection rather than just transactional relationships.
That does not happen accidentally.
It is engineered by people who understand communication at a strategic level.
The rise of “soft power” in business
What makes this shift particularly interesting is that women are no longer trying to distance themselves from these industries in order to be taken seriously. There was a period where many women felt pressure to position themselves as more corporate, more analytical or more traditionally “business-minded” to gain credibility. Now, there is a growing confidence around owning the fact that cultural intelligence, emotional awareness and communication are business skills.
And valuable ones at that.
The internet has exposed just how commercially important these traditionally feminised skills really are. Taste matters. Branding matters. Community matters. Influence matters. People do not simply buy products anymore; they buy identity, aspiration and belonging.
The women in SPAM understand this instinctively because they have spent years navigating online spaces where perception moves markets.
Everyone suddenly wants the “PR Girlies”
There is also something undeniably funny about watching industries that once dismissed “PR girlies” now desperately trying to hire them. Suddenly every founder wants a personal brand. Every company wants a social strategy. Every startup wants virality. Every CEO wants thought leadership. Every brand wants community.
In other words, everyone now wants the exact expertise they previously underestimated.
The women who were once mocked for working in “soft” industries are now shaping the direction of culture, commerce and communication in real time.
Welcome to the Women in SPAM Era
And perhaps that is why this rebrand feels so good.
Because the women in SPAM were never frivolous, unserious or superficial. They were simply early to understanding where influence was heading.
Now the rest of the world has finally caught up.
