Locker Room Talk, Which Started as a JA Sweden Company, Receives One Million Kroner Award

November 21, 2017

Locker Room Talk, Which Started as a JA Sweden Company, Receives One Million Kroner Award

Through the JA Company Program, students start real companies with real products, services, customers, and profits, and these companies often live long after their JA days. A great example is Locker Room Talk, a former JA company from JA Sweden (Ung Företagsamhet).

Locker Room Talk, a JA student company formed in 2016 to speak frankly about gender equality and macho culture in locker rooms, received a one million kroner award from soccer star Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Locker Room Talk staff (Shanga Aziz, Rogiero Silva, Julia Frännek, and Hampus Sagrelius) was on hand to receive the award. In accepting the scholarship, Aziz said, "We need to start a new masculinity, where boys can be in a variety of ways."

Five months ago, at the JA Europe Company of the Year Competition in Brussels, Locker Room Talk won the Facebook Best Social Media Marketing Campaign Award, impressing the Facebook Signature Award jury with their strong sense of creativity and innovation. As a result of the award, Locker Room Talk has received mentoring from Facebook staff on how to run campaigns and use Facebook as a marketing tool, all free of charge. The group is also advertising in tube stations in Stockholm.

Locker Room Talk has now formed into an NGO, with a mission of ending the sort of talk among men and boys that disparages women. The organization has visited more than 70 clubs in Sweden to talk about gender equality, and is working with the Swedish Sports Confederation on a multi-year contract that will help spread a gender-equity message throughout Sweden.
 

Zlatan Ibrahimović started his scholarship, called “Number 10,” for those who are doing great work for and about soccer, and the very first winner is Locker Room talk. "Congratulations to Locker Room Talk," Ibrahimović said. "Very well done, well deserved. I inspire many, but you do that too. Keep doing what you do, get your message and make them think of a mindset. You make it to the right age, that is where everything begins. It takes a lot to do what you do, keep fighting and just do what you do."