Between the main “Write the Future” ad and the new Paving the Way ad specific to the USA, it seemed that Nike’s ads were well-made pieces of inspiration.
But not everyone agrees. From the Left Wing’s Jennifer Doyle says:
People seem to like Alejandro Iñárritu’s ad for Nike’s 2010 World Cup campaign (“Write the Future”). I don’t. Women appear in it only as sex objects and jokes.
She continues by demonstrating her point with three different aspects of the ad.
Amanda of Needs More Kittens had some vitriol for the Paving the Way ad.
Who’s shown matters, and even more, who’s excluded matters. What Nike is saying here, intention aside, is that only boys can be inspired by the men’s national team. Only boys can take pride in “that goal,” or the other goal. Girls? You’re invisible, and therefore irrelevant, unless you grow up “hot” and we can use your body to sell shirts for the men’s team.
That latter comment is in reference to the use of Playboy models to sell jerseys.
Is it true? Is Nike’s marketing sexist? Or are people being overly sensitive?
Watch the Write the Future ad. By my count, ANY female portrayal is a couple of seconds at most.
In the Paving the Way ad, the only people being inspired by the US Men’s National Team’s run in the 2010 World Cup are male.
And Playboy models to sell jerseys?
If you’re not paying attention, you could think it doesn’t matter. Sex sells, and Nike needs to sell. They sell jerseys for other nations as well, especially some where sex in advertising is incredibly common, so for the sake of brevity, let’s ignore the hyper-sexualized marketing efforts for now.
That leaves us with their other ads. Now, Nike does do advertising for the US Women’s National Team, but it’s not nearly as inspirational, to say the least:
But let’s focus just on the advertising for this World Cup. With no women and no young girls talking about how inspired they are by the US Men’s team, what does that say about Nike’s intentions?
It says that they had no intention to include women in their advertising.
That is, Nike’s marketing is clearly just for boys with no thought to the females in the world’s audience. One stat I’ve seen thrown out: 30% of the fan base for men’s soccer is female. That’s a LOT of people to alienate and ignore.
The problem isn’t just Nike’s portrayal of women as sex objects and jokes. The problem is that women are hardly portrayed at all. It’s like women don’t exist in Nike’s fantasy soccer-based world. In fact, if you want a women’s US Men’s National Team jersey, you can’t get one.
Nothing’s absurd about wanting to make sure that women and young girls are included. Nike’s marketing efforts should keep them in mind.
EDIT: And Match Fit USA also wrote about it in Nike’s Thank You Ad an Exclusionary Boys Club.
