Nia George, as part of her Work Experience with the Festival of Media team provides her take on six advertising campaigns currently being shown to amplify the Women’s World Cup in New Zealand and Australia.
This advert was a very bright way of portraying women’s football and beating stereotypes that are commonplace within women’s sports. The French telecoms brand has used the French national team to amplify a different message and challenge old fashioned perceptions of women’s football. Throughout the advert there are little messages and examples of phrases used such as ‘’Il n’y a que les Bleus pour nous procurer ces émotions.’’ This translates to there are only one blue that give us these emotions. At this part of the advert the audience views the men’s French football team had an impressive run throughout the world cup.
However, there is a twist in the advert followed by the statement: ‘’Pourtant, ce n’est pas eux que vous venez de voir.’’ which translates to ‘yet it is not them that you have just seen’. The next clip shows the reverse – and the power of AI – of how it was the French women’s team that had been performing so well and highlights the popular perception men are better at football than women which is ultimately incorrect. This campaign cleverly challenges this perception within the sporting world and highlights how we all quickly conform to what we see on the internet instead of being an active audience and researching into the validity of what is being fed to us online.
This campaign is very powerful and well structured in delivering the message across that sport does not revolve around men and that the women’s teams train just as hard and even get better results than many of their male counterparts. Also, in terms of a brand fit the telecom behemoth’ logo appears at the end of the campaign and it is visible around the stadium it is set in. We feel this is a clever, smart and important campaigns challenging outdated perceptions of women’s football.
2. Nike Champions and Let it Rip – Nike
This is Nike’s campaign for the Women’s World Cup. They use animation in both an OOH and video activation featuring cartoon woman playing football and riding a motorcycle. It’s a clever campaign depicting the main character as part of the LGBTQ+ community conveying a message of how everyone is accepted when playing football and the World Cup is a way to inclusively unite the world to share a passion.
However, we believe it’s in danger of feeling a little tokenistic with the female character being portrayed with outdated preconceptions of gay women including sporting short hair and a level of masculinity, which could be quite damaging to the overall message.
It’s great to see that Nike is using a smart method of encouraging members of the LGBTQ+ community to feel included, but it has to be careful with how it does it and not exclude other LGBTQ+ women who don’t look like the main character.
What the sports brands has done brilliant is create synergy between its products and the purpose it is trying to highlight. The campaign also incorporates a brilliant soundtrack that resonates with both the message and the brand.
3.No Signal for Help Should Go Unseen – CALM
This campaign stuck a chord with us at FOM due to the seriousness and more sombre nature of its overriding message, which uses football to promote it. It’s all about using women’s football to raise awareness about female mental health often going unnoticed in society.
It focuses on an injured female footballer and her feelings as the rest of the team plays on and doesn’t tend to notice her suffering and mental wellbeing, and relates this back to women in similar situations in the rest of life.
This is a strong advert that plays into the audience’s emotions and has great brand synergy with CALM and most importantly appeals to a mass audience within and outside of football and sport. In using the World Cup the brand has a global platform to promote its important and life changing message.
4. That’s a W crystal Dunn – ESPN
The focus of this campaign is encouraging more females to get involved in sports and to highlight how they are equally, if not more talented, than their male counterparts and using the Women’s World Cup as a vehicle to do this. The athlete in the campaign discusses being an example for the next generation of female sports stars and most importantly it tends to focus on women from ethnic backgrounds, who may not always have the same opportunities as their white counterparts.
However, it is this point that may not be quite accurate as it doesn’t quite depict the reality of the struggle for ethnic communities to gain the sporting opportunities offered to other communities.
That said it’s an interesting advert that puts the women at the forefront and utilises the broadcasters reach and audience to resonate, and the style of the ad dovetails brilliantly with its message. It’s clear from the outset this campaign is produced by ESPN with the broadcasters logo situated throughout it.
5. Football Beyond Borders Film Aims to Help Girls ‘Break the Grass Ceiling’ in Football
The potential of this campaign to have a positive influence on girls, who have been told they cannot get involved in sports because of their clothing, nails and hair, is huge.
These three factors have contributed to a decrease in the number of girls playing football and having no interest in sport. The majority of this comes from schools’ sports programmes and how certain activities are being taught to girls and boys.
This campaign sets out to highlight no matter how a female is dressed sport can be enjoyed and most importantly a tool that can bring people together to share a passion. It uses the Women’s World Cup to show how training and hard work is what drives you to sporting success and not how you dress or look.
The ad amplifies how women can be just, or more, dominant than men when it comes to sport and help encourage more girls from every background to start playing sports and not be pushed away due to stereotypical comments.
Play Until They Can’t Look Away – Adidas
This campaign is fast paced and makes the audience feel like it’s playing in the middle of a football match.
The sports brand uses the power of celebrity to help highlight its message, which is about encouraging more people to watch the World Cup. Having the likes of Lionel Messi as a female football ally, alongside female footballers showcasing their ball skills and playing football is great. It’s a simple campaign designed to generate more interest in the event.
Could your campaigns shoot and score in our Best Use of Sport categories in our Latin America or North America programmes?
