Women’s World Cup Ads You Have to See to Believe
There are two absolutely phenomenal Women’s World Cup soccer ads that went viral on TikTok over the weekend. The first is the one featuring this French ad (this TikTok had over 4 million views in a day) and the second is this Nike ad.
Disclaimer: I highly recommend you watch the ads-particularly the French one—before you continue reading because I’m about to dive headfirst into some SPOILERS that won’t make it as meaningful to experience.
Assuming you’ve watched, the French ad challenges the notion that “playing like a girl” is less physical, entertaining, or extraordinary. And they do it through visual effects so the audience can experience how locked in they were with the men’s vs. women’s teams.
I felt myself watching the ad as a viewer—in awe—and as a marketer, with notes. First, the men’s portion is long. We hear attention spans are shorter than ever—and if TikToker Jessi hadn’t begun her breakdown with “you have to watch the entire thing,” I might’ve missed it. Also, at the same time that it was memorable and meaningful how people were edited to look like others, it made me hesitant when I considered how easily brands and ads could make us believe one person is someone else. (On a related note, a friend of mine who worked on this really great ad featuring J Lo for Virgin Voyages shared it recently and I felt the same way—impressed, entertained, and aware that technology can (mis)appropriate our likeness.)
The second ad felt like a throwback: The Nike ad is an anime short featuring Megan Rapinoe, and this TikTok has wracked up more than 600K views in 19 hours. I love it as a counterpoint: That visual effects and the futurist technology is memorable—and so is an animated cartoon.
As an editor’s note, one of the things I’ve been thinking on is the marketing verticals on different social media platforms I’m on, and how siloed trending news can be. With this in mind, I’m changing the scope of this weekly newsletter to cover what I’m seeing trending in marketing, branding, communication and crisis PR.
Speaking of, if you missed my interview on Ahead of the Curve with Coco Mocoe —we cover a lot of trending topics, and starting at 20 minutes into the podcast, we do a deep dive of threads. Listen here.
