{"id":2401273,"date":"2025-02-11T07:36:02","date_gmt":"2025-02-11T12:36:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/nikes-super-bowl-ad-was-worse-than-the-game-itself\/"},"modified":"2025-02-11T07:40:38","modified_gmt":"2025-02-11T12:40:38","slug":"nikes-super-bowl-ad-was-worse-than-the-game-itself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/nikes-super-bowl-ad-was-worse-than-the-game-itself\/","title":{"rendered":"Nike\u2019s Super Bowl Ad Was Worse Than The Game Itself"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fnikes-super-bowl-ad-was-worse-than-the-game-itself%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2401273&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The article discusses Super Bowl LIX, criticizing the event \u200cas dull,\u200d particularly \u2062highlighting the Philadelphia Eagles&#8217; dominance\u200d over the Kansas City Chiefs. It also critiques\u2064 the advertisements aired, claiming thay \u200dfailed to engage audiences, except for Nike&#8217;s commercial titled &#8220;So Win.&#8221; This ad focuses on women&#8217;s\u2063 empowerment in sports but\u200c is deemed overly simplistic and\u2062 disconnected from the actual progress women have made\u2063 in real \u200clife, especially in education and professional fields.<\/p>\n<p>The piece \u200bargues\u200b that while acknowledging women&#8217;s achievements is crucial, Nike&#8217;s approach appears demeaning \u2063and \u200cmisleading, suggesting that\u200c there\u200d is still a significant\u2064 barrier\u200d for women to overcome. the author reflects\u200b on how \u2064society has shifted away from concepts like\u2062 &#8220;diversity, equity, and \u2062inclusion,&#8221; implying that the advertising message is outdated. <\/p>\n<p>Additionally, \u2062the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/watch-msnbc-takes-on-cancel-culture\/\" title=\"WATCH: MSNBC Takes On \u2026 Cancel Culture?\">article mentions<\/a> that while Nike remains a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/equinox-and-soulcycle-to-require-covid-vaccinations-at-new-york-city-locations\/\" title=\"Equinox and SoulCycle to Require COVID Vaccinations at New York City Locations\">leading brand<\/a>, their strategy to target\u200d &#8220;Undecided Whales&#8221;\u2014a\u2062 reference to women seeking \u200dsports \u2062apparel\u2014may backfire if they continue to focus on \u200csuch dated narratives. Ultimately,the author suggests that there is a need for \u200ca more balanced recognition of both men and women in advertising and that companies should avoid pandering messages during\u2062 events like the Super\u2062 Bowl.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Super Bowl LIX was boring. The Eagles flew away with the lead early and kept it. The Chiefs failed to do what they&rsquo;ve been doing, coming from behind under seemingly insurmountable odds to pull off a victory. But what about the advertisements, which often capture the imaginations of people who otherwise <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/despite-insistence-by-democrat-politicians-and-medical-elites-empirical-evidence-does-not-conclusively-show-that-masks-reduce-the-spread-of-covid\/\" title=\"Despite Insistence by Democrat Politicians and Medical Elites, Empirical Evidence DOES NOT Conclusively Show that Masks Reduce the Spre... of COVID\">don&#038;rsquo<\/a>;t much care about football? They were also boring, if also largely free of the sort of virtue signaling that engulfed Big Businesses starting in 2020.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Save for one spot &mdash; that is, Nike&rsquo;s &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=b0Ezn5pZE7o\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">So Win<\/a>.&rdquo; Backed by Led Zeppelin&rsquo;s &ldquo;Whole Lotta Love,&rdquo; the ad cycles through a variety of tropes about women in sports and then suggests embracing them. The narrator offers statements like, &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t fill a stadium, so fill a stadium,&rdquo; and &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t be emotional, so be emotional.&rdquo; First, Caitlin Clark can fill stadiums. She was not featured during that segment. Second, outside of &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=6M8szlSa-8o\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">A League of Their Own<\/a>,&rdquo; since when have emotions been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=iriqdgZw4a0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">verboten in sports<\/a>? Third, and most important, what was the point of that ad?&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Mostly it was to get kudos from places like Adweek, a trade publication that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.adweek.com\/brand-marketing\/nike-super-bowl-59-ad-creative-reaction\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">praised<\/a> Nike for &ldquo;making a statement &lsquo;while most brands are playing it safe.&rsquo;&rdquo; And certainly, that is true to an extent. &ldquo;Creatives&rdquo; are often <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/DisgracedProp\/status\/1888996622878826672\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">anything but<\/a>, focused more on committees and agreement than boldness. There is another reason, though, and that is that women spend a lot of money on apparel but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statista.com\/statistics\/888763\/nikes-revenue-by-customer-segment-worldwide\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">not on Nike<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Substack writer Ethan Strauss discussed this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.houseofstrauss.com\/p\/nikes-end-of-men\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">at length<\/a> in his inaugural piece on the platform, writing, &ldquo;[Nike is] a company built on masculinity, most specifically Michael Jordan&rsquo;s alpha dog brand of it. Now, due to its own ambitions, scandals, and intellectual trends, Nike finds masculinity problematic enough to loudly reject.&rdquo; That article, published in 2021, is titled &ldquo;Nike&rsquo;s End of Men.&rdquo; Kudos to the company for remaining steadfast in the face of a major vibe shift, I suppose, but will the spot help it capture the market Strauss refers to as its &ldquo;Undecided Whale?&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Who knows? Maybe this time it will work. It&rsquo;s not like Nike is hurting for cash. Its revenue in 2024 was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statista.com\/statistics\/241683\/nikes-sales-worldwide-since-2004\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">$51 million<\/a>, and though that was not a huge jump from 2023, it&rsquo;s still a nice chunk of change. Its market cap is <a href=\"https:\/\/companiesmarketcap.com\/nike\/marketcap\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">$104.92 billion<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\">meaning investors feel good<\/a> about its growth potential. As a dedicated non-wearer of Nike, for both its insistence on letting boys play girls&rsquo; sports as well as its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.business-humanrights.org\/en\/latest-news\/usa-nike-and-coca-cola-among-major-companies-lobbying-congress-to-water-down-uyghur-forced-labour-law\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">fondness for slave labor<\/a>, I don&rsquo;t really care if it succeeds. As a father of three daughters, though, I do care about brands selling bovine excrement about where women stand in America today.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>While it&rsquo;s true that women&rsquo;s sports don&rsquo;t generate a ton of revenue &mdash; the WNBA is behind an Australian cricket league, for example &mdash; most people, whether male or female, are not going to fill stadiums. <a href=\"https:\/\/learn.neumann.edu\/neupress\/long-odds-face-college-athletes-who-want-to-go-pro\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Less than 2 percent<\/a> of college players go pro. When it comes to going to college, though, the balance currently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pewresearch.org\/short-reads\/2024\/11\/18\/us-women-are-outpacing-men-in-college-completion-including-in-every-major-racial-and-ethnic-group\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">favors the fairer sex<\/a>, with 47 percent of women 25-34 attaining degrees whereas only 37 percent of their male counterparts achieve that. The disparity exists across race and ethnicity.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>They&rsquo;re not doing so badly in the professional world either, with 52 percent of &ldquo;management, professional, and related occupations&rdquo; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bls.gov\/opub\/reports\/womens-databook\/2022\/#:~:text=Women%2520accounted%2520for%252052.0%2520percent,(See%2520table%252012.)\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">going to women<\/a>. Given the trends in higher education, one doesn&rsquo;t have to be Nostradamus to predict which direction that trendline will go over the coming years.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In other words, Nike&rsquo;s big celebration of women &mdash; which, again, kudos for highlighting actual women this time &mdash; is demeaning. It sells a false reality they must overcome, a ceiling that no longer exists. It treats women as less-than. It&rsquo;s also, to reiterate, a huge misread of the current vibe shift.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>It&rsquo;s 2025, y&rsquo;all. &ldquo;Diversity, equity, and inclusion&rdquo; is out, despite the fact that I just used the more inclusive term &ldquo;y&rsquo;all&rdquo; rather than &ldquo;guys.&rdquo; People are tired of such nonsense. Also, Always solved all these problems with its <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2014\/07\/21\/likeagirl-cashes-in-on-womens-insecurities\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">#LikeAGirl<\/a> campaign back in 2014. Brands have new issues they can tackle, like how heteronormative cul-de-sac parties are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=x7qbswwBCDo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">actually awesome<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Nike, though, in its quest for Undecided Whales, isn&rsquo;t ready to move on from the past few years. And people are talking about the spot &mdash; though, as we&rsquo;ve learned, not all publicity is good publicity. At least it wasn&rsquo;t boring? Maybe, but given where we are as a nation and a people, maybe Nike shouldn&rsquo;t have chosen this message for its reentry, after a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/archives\/la-xpm-1998-jan-17-fi-9108-story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">27-year absence<\/a>, into the wide world of Super Bowl advertising.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>True, Nike <a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/archives\/la-xpm-1998-jan-17-fi-9108-story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">dominates the market<\/a>, and &ldquo;So Win&rdquo; isn&rsquo;t likely to change that. Regardless, it would be nice if those who rule the upper echelons of corporate culture could grasp that not everything has to be a battle of the sexes. That it&rsquo;s good to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericansaga.com\/p\/democrats-need-to-realize-its-not\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">acknowledge and celebrate men<\/a>. That women are doing OK. That when the urge hits to pander during a football game, maybe say, &ldquo;Just don&rsquo;t do it.&rdquo; We&rsquo;re in this world together, working to complement one another, to help one another, to be strong together. <\/p>\n<p>Also, though, to paraphrase Michael Jordan, if you want those Undecided Whales, Nike, remember that women buy sneakers for men too, and there is a plethora of less-divisive brands from which they can choose to do so.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Richard Cromwell is a writer and senior contributor at The Federalist. He lives in Northwest Arkansas with his wife, three daughters, and two crazy dogs. Co-host of the podcast <a href=\"http:\/\/coffeeandcochon.com\/%E2%80%9C\">Coffee &amp; Cochon<\/a>, you can find him on <a href=\"\/\/www.facebook.com\/jrichardcromwell%E2%80%9C\">Facebook<\/a>  and <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/rcromwell4\">Twitter<\/a>, though you should probably avoid using social media.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Super Bowl LIX was dull; the Eagles dominated early<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":701,"featured_media":2401274,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/nike-SB.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[9437,7591,35594],"class_list":["post-2401273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-ad","tag-nike","tag-super-bowl"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/nike-SB.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2401273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/701"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2401273"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2401273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2401277,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2401273\/revisions\/2401277"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2401274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2401273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2401273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2401273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}