Under the new leadership of former Miss America and Fox & Friends anchor Gretchen Carlson, the Miss America Pageant is back, and this time it’s about “scholarship, social impact, talent and empowerment,” according a statement from the organization’s board of trustees in June.

The campaign, created by advertising agency Y&R and released on YouTube with a website coming shortly, gets directly at the stereotypes that have stuck to Miss America up until now: that it’s contestants are much more about beauty than brains and much more about finding a husband than finding a job.

In these spots, however, the speakers have graduated from universities such as Harvard, Brown and Columbia with degrees in subjects such as neuroscience, chemistry, biology and geology.

The women profiled in the video, “The Job,” also are interested in social justice, focusing on such issues as domestic violence, mental health and mental illness, human trafficking and more.

“It’s not about a sparkly crown, it’s an opportunity to impact lives,” says one woman.

The Job

The Miss America Pageant 2.0 airs Sunday, Sept. 9 on ABC at 9/8 c.

READ MORE: Adweek​, MediaPost

Tags: abc miss america y&r


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