Nike's Super Bowl Ad
Their $16 million ad -- You can't win. So win. -- is a big fail.
Nike ran an ad in the Super Bowl for the first time in 27 years. The name of the ad (or the tagline, perhaps) is: You can’t win. So win. What does that even mean?
It was a 60 second ad which means the media cost was about $16 million. I’m sure the production cost was about $2 million not including the high priced athletes with big contracts who appeared in it.
It was entirely focused on female athletes. Here’s the ad:
The ad is terrible. It’s fake feminism and fake support of women.
Same as they always do.
I have so many problems with this ad.
But the fact is, Nike has profited off of pretending to stand up for women for decades. So this is really nothing new.
For starters, they failed to renew Olympic champion track and field star Allyson Felix’s contract because she was pregnant.
Their Oregon Running Project abused young track star Mary Cain to the point of suicidal ideation. Nike eventually fired the coach and later shut down the club, in a cloud of controversy including this abuse and doping of athletes.
Then, Nike featured “trans” non athlete, non-woman Dylan Mulvaney in their marketing for running bras.
Next, the ad repeats outdated tropes like women are told they can’t be demanding or win or fill stadiums or be confident or be emotional. And then, it goes on to say, so go do those things. Win. Fill stadiums. Be emotional Be confident. You go girl!
Barf.
It’s such an outdated mode of commercialized get it girl feminism. I honestly wanted to throw something at the television. It is as if the ad was made in 1990. No one is telling girls they can’t play or win.
No one is telling Caitlin Clark she can’t fill stadiums. And she does.
No one is telling Simone Biles she can’t call herself the GOAT. And she does. (Notably, Biles is not in the ad. She left Nike in 2021 to join Athleta, a brand “that focuses on women.” Her words, not mine.)
No one is telling Aryna Sabalenka she can’t be emotional on the court. And she is. She threw her tennis racket when she lost the Australian Open just a few weeks ago.
They are tilting at windmills. They are presenting an enemy — those mean sexists — that doesn’t exist to position themselves as brave.
But Nike is anything but brave. Or pro-woman.
Of course I can’t help but feel proud that this was undoubtedly a response to the challenge XX-XY Athletics has put in front of them to stand up for women and girls with our Dear Nike ad, launched last October on X/X day (10/10).
But the brand fails to actually address our challenge. Which is to stand up for the integrity of women’s sports. That would be the brave thing for the biggest name in sports to say. Not this drivel they put out.
Lastly, their premise that women aren’t allowed to do things . . . to compete, to win, to scream and shout, to be confident and emotional . . . not true. Female athletes ARE winning and filling stadiums and shouting and all of it. What they can’t do — literally, the only thing they are told they cannot do — is stand up and say women’s sports are for women only. Not a single currently competing Olympic or high level professional athlete has said it. And those that do have the courage to do it get absolutely dragged across the internet, called names, are threatened physically (like Riley Gaines) and lose sponsorship deals (like Bethany Hamilton).
Here’s our addition to their campaign. Thanks to Brett Craig, creative director extraordinaire, for coming up with it.
You can’t talk about males invading women’s sports. So talk about males invading women’s sports.
Which is why that’s what we at XX-XY Athletics did in our ad Real Girls Rock. The ad has over 15M views (and still rising) with zero paid media. And it only cost us $40k to make. But it resonates with the 80% of Americans who have enough common sense to say “women’s sports are for women only.”
Nike, get over yourselves. You’re not cool anymore. You’re definitely not brave. And you are no friend to women, and you never have been.
The best thing I can actually say about this ad is that Dylan Mulvaney wasn’t in it.
In case you prefer video over reading:
Outstanding. A blistering, well-deserved critique from a savvy marketer and fierce advocate for women in sports. Love it.
I have to say, Ms. Sey, thank you for being there! What if your xx-xy ad had not come out first? We'd have to put up with the Nike version of girl boss athletes. I predict this will refract more attention to xx-xy. Which is better product, anyway.