Nike’s commercial showing WNBA players superior to NFL stars resurfaces
The promotional video from Nike was released after Team USA Women's basketball won its 7th straight gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics.
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Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese and the Nike commercial (via Oberlin Review/YouTube)
2024 has been a phenomenal year for the WNBA and women’s basketball in general. Owing to the arrival of skilled and hyped rookies such as Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, the sport has witnessed a high degree of interest, and viewership numbers have reached unprecedented peaks. In short, the sport is growing but thanks to the resurgence of an advertisement from Nike, fans that have had reservations about the league have a reason to resent it.
The USA Women’s National Basketball team has been dominant in the Olympics. It won its 8th straight gold medal in Paris earlier this year. However, an advertisement that Nike released to commemorate their victory in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics has been criticized for taking a jibe at other sports leagues which have been thriving in comparison to women’s basketball.
Team USA won its 7th straight gold in Tokyo. Nike decided to celebrate this win by hailing the women as being part of a dynasty, which is fair but here is where it gets controversial. The advertisement features a girl in high school who is required to make a presentation on dynasties but refuses “to talk about the ancient history and drama,” and goes on to dub it as “the patriarchy.” She then proceeds to cite the USA Women’s basketball team comprising ladies from diverse cultural backgrounds and sexual orientations as the ideal dynasty that motivated her.
????????: NFL fans are upset with Nike's new commercial, which seems to claim women’s basketball players are superior to NFL teams and Alexander the Great.
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) October 11, 2024
Thoughts?pic.twitter.com/99XMTqL1B9
The WNBA has yet to establish itself as a profitable sports league
The controversial part comes when the protagonist of the advertisement takes a jibe at the NFL, the NBA, and the MLB. “A dynasty that makes your favorite men’s basketball, football, and baseball teams look like amateurs.” That is a bold statement to make considering the NBA’s 50% stake in the WNBA continues to be its primary source of funding. Women’s basketball is great and entertaining to watch but how does it make sense to diminish other leagues and sports whose numbers show sheer dominance over the sport?
The US Women’s National Basketball team has achieved a feat that no other nation can fathom. Make no mistake about that. But the next statement made in this advertisement is beyond ridiculous. The protagonist claims that their dynasty makes “Alexander the Great look like Alexander the OK.” For a mere punchline, that sounds great but at the same time, it is comparing apples to oranges. For reference, Alexander the Great conquered an estimated 3.5% of the earth’s landmass, in 12 years.
Football is nothing short of a religion. The least valuable team in the NFL, the Cincinnati Bengals are valued at $4.1 billion. The 12 teams in the WNBA combined form a value of a little over $1 billion. Women’s basketball continues to be a growing sport, it will be looked at through those lenses until the WNBA turns profitable.
The women’s Olympic basketball final in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics amassed a viewership of 10.9 million at its peak. The average viewership that the NFL records on Sunday Night Football is 21.4 million as per Statista.
Sports leagues are meant to coexist in the environment. The advertisement turned that into a competition. The growth of the sport is ultimately what matters the most. Women’s basketball is legit but when a brand such as Nike chooses to make exaggerated claims as have been in this advertisement, it hurts the sport and the athletes that have been fighting for similar pay to their male counterparts.
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Sumedh Joshi
(2284 Articles Published)