Nike's advertisements for the Women's World Cup are amazing

If you grew up marveling at iconic Nike football ads such as Winner Stays on and The Cage, you most definitely regard the American brand as a master of sports marketing and advertising. From The Mission in 2000 to last year’s Footballverse, Nike has blessed us with some legendary skits destined to be remembered and appreciated for years to come. Rarely, however, have these ads included women, if not in the past few years. This is somewhat understandable, given the ever-increasing popularity of the women’s game, to the point that the upcoming World Cup in 2023 is widely regarded as the biggest and most anticipated event in the history of the sport.

In line with the development of women’s football, Nike has just released a series of adverts that not only evoke their classic 2000s ads, but also ignite even more excitement around what is sure to be an incredible tournament. The first 6 ads were released across last week, focusing on 6 different stars of the upcoming tournament: Sam Kerr, Ada Hegerberg, Debinha, Wang Shuang, Sophia Smith, and Megan Rapinoe. Each one concentrates on a particular element of a given player’s game or her country’s football culture, resulting in unique 1-minute skits perfect for building even more hype around the biggest Women’s World Cup ever.

Flip the game - Sam Kerr, Australia

First up chronologically is Sam Kerr’s ‘Flip the game’ ad. The leader of a Golden Generation almost destined to lift the cup on home soil, Kerr is the beacon of much of the attention that the tournament is receiving. ‘Flip the game’ is a tribute to her famous backflip goal celebration, as in the ad she is seen performing it and bringing the entire world along with her.

Get Ada Her Way - Ada Hegerberg, Norway

Ada Hegerberg is one of, if not the most lethal scorer in the women’s game. A star at Olympique Lyonnais, she could aptly be described as the female version of Cristiano Ronaldo. Why? Well, if CR7 is ‘Mr. Champions League’ with his 5 titles won and 140 goals scored (most all-time), Ada is ‘Ms. Champions League’, having won 6 as the tournament's best ever goalscorer with 59 goals. This is exactly what the ad hints at: during a game, as Ada makes her way towards the opponents’ goal, we see the entire stadium rush to the field to try and keep her from scoring, all because conventional defending methods wouldn’t work.

Joga Forever - Debinha, Brazil

n an attempt to extend Brazil’s Joga Bonito concept to the country’s women’s team, Nike turned back time and brought us some peak 2000s culture. The ad is recorded in the form of supermarket security footage, where, while shopping, star forward Debinha drops what seems to be a pack of rice or oatmeal. Calm and collected, Debinha completely unleashes her Brazilian genes, beginning to juggle and doing all kinds of tricks with the bag to prevent it from falling on the floor. Passers-by are shocked, as is the store clerk. Who wouldn’t be?

Play With Heart - Wang Shuang, China

Wang Shuang is China’s biggest footballing star and hope, the symbol of a growing movement that has recently brought the country a Women’s Asian Cup. But that’s not enough, the team is hungry for more. Shuang fully embodies this mentality, as she is renowned for her gritty, ‘all-heart’ playing style. This is why Nike dedicated ‘Play With Heart’ to her, focusing exactly on her intensity and tenacity as a footballer and person. In this 1990s-donghua-looking (Chinese style of animation) ad we see her in different contexts, always accompanied by a fiery, raging talking heart whose job is to encourage her in all of her pursuits.

Nice To Beat You - Sophia Smith, USA

‘Nice To Beat You’ is a twist on the common phrase ‘nice to meet you’, used to emphasize Sophia Smith’s domination of her opponents and how she always inevitably beats them. The ad focuses on a fictional player from a fictional team preparing for a game against the USWNT, haunted by the idea of having to face Smith. The entire advert is a big build up to the moment in which the players step out into the tunnel and the protagonist’s worst fears culminate in the sight of her worst nightmare: the scary Sophia Smith.

Let It Rip - Megan Rapinoe, USA

Perhaps the biggest name in women’s football right now, veteran midfielder Megan Rapinoe is a living legend and pioneer. This ad is dedicated to her heroic acts both on and off the field, as the national team’s captain and as a big advocate for the LGBTQ+ community in sports. We see an anime depicting Rapinoe as a hero, or, like the song in the background says “All-American hero”. We are shown her battles as a footballer and as an activist, all of which clearly demonstrate the champion and inspiration that is Megan Rapinoe.

What The Football, the main advert

And then yesterday, Nike released a 7th ad: ‘What The Football’, essentially a summary of all the biggest stars, threats, and competitors that women’s football can boast in 2023. This is all done in the form of a father and daughter talking for the first time since USA’s victory in the 1999 World Cup final, when the father slipped on a banana peel mid-celebration and fell into a 24-year-long coma. As said earlier, it's a summary of sorts, the centerpiece of the campaign, containing snippets of the other 6 ads and some more to promote how exciting the women’s game currently is. ‘It’s a good day to be awake, Dad’, says the daughter, confirming how far the sport has come since he last watched it in 1999.

With ‘What The Football’, the entire campaign comes together under one main ad. While the other 6 went into detail about 6 of the biggest stars of the tournament, focusing on their football and human qualities, this bigger one is a reflection on the sport as a whole. The development we have seen in almost every tangible and measurable metric throughout the past 20+ years has been astonishing, so astonishing that the father is himself at a loss for words. The advert is an invitation for the audience to consider how much the perception and atmosphere around women’s football -  as well as the game itself - have changed. Despite its humor and light-hearted ambiance, the skit is actually very deep, made to pay homage to all the women and girls that have helped the sport get to where it is today. Women’s football is now a place full of bright stars, ready to explode onto the World Cup scene and take the game to unprecedented heights, with players like Sam Kerr, Alex Morgan, and Megan Rapinoe being household names not just in the female world, but in all of football.