Super Bowl LIX was boring. The Eagles kept the prospect as they flew away first. The Chiefs came from behind under seemingly unsurmountable odds to draw off a success, but they didn’t do what they’ve been doing. But what about the ads, which usually capture the imaginations of people who normally don’t much worry about basketball? They were likewise dull, despite being mostly free of the kind of positive reinforcement that Big Companies experienced starting in 2020.  ,
Save for one position — that is, Nike’s” So Win“. The ad cycles through a number of tropes about women in sports before suggesting embracing them, which is supported by Led Zeppelin’s” Whole Lotta Love.” The narrator offers statements like,” You can’t fill a stadium, so fill a stadium”, and” You can’t be emotional, so be emotional”. Second, Caitlin Clark may load stadiums. She didn’t appear in that category. Next, outside of” A League of Their Own“, since when have thoughts been verboten in activities? Third, and most important, what was the place of that campaign?  ,
Generally it was thanks to publications like Adweek, a trade journal, which praised Nike for “making a speech” while most other brands are “playing it healthy.” And surely, that is true to an amount. ” Creatives” are usually something but, focused more on commissions and contract than courage. There is another cause, while, and that is that people spend a lot of money on clothing but not on Nike.  ,
Substack author Ethan Strauss discussed this at length in his inaugural part on the system, writing,” ]Nike is ] a business built on manhood, most especially Michael Jordan’s alpha dog model of it. Today, due to its own passions, scandals, and academic trends, Nike finds masculinity difficult enough to noisily reject”. That content, published in 2021, is titled” Nike’s End of People”. Kudos to the business for holding firm in the face of a significant change of tone, I suppose, but will the new location help it reclaim the niche that Strauss refers to as its” Undecided Whale”?
Who knows? Maybe it will work this time. It’s not like Nike is hurting for money. Its profits in 2024 was$ 51 million, and though that was not a big leap from 2023, it’s also a good chunk of change. Its market cap is$ 104.92 billion, meaning owners feel great about its growth possible. I don’t really care if it succeeds because of Nike’s insistence on letting boys play girls ‘ sports as well as its fondness for slave labor. As a dedicated non-wearer, I don’t really care if it succeeds. However, as a father of three sons, I care about the status of women in America today when products are sold in porcine feces.  ,
While it’s true that children’s sports don’t make a ton of profit — the WNBA is behind an Australian bowling group, for example — most people, whether male or female, are not going to replace stadiums. Less than 2 % of college athletes turn pro. However, the gender gap is currently favorable when it comes to going to college, with only 37 % of female counterparts between the ages of 25 and 34 achieving degrees. The gap exists across race and ethnicity.  ,
They’re not doing so hard in the professional world sometimes, with 52 percent of “management, expert, and related professions” going to people. One doesn’t need to be Nostradamus to predict the direction that the trendline will take in the upcoming years given the trends in higher education.  ,
In other words, Nike’s big celebration of women — which, again, kudos for highlighting actual women this time— is demeaning. It sells a false reality they must overcome, a ceiling that no longer exists. It treats women as less-than. It’s also, to reiterate, a huge misread of the current vibe shift.  ,
It’s 2025, y’all. ” Diversity, equity, and inclusion” is out, despite the fact that I just used the more inclusive term “y’all” rather than “guys”. People are tired of such nonsense. Additionally, Always addressed all of these issues with its# LikeAGirl campaign back in 2014 with its# LikeAGirl campaign. Brands have new issues they can tackle, like how heteronormative cul-de-sac parties are actually awesome.
Nike, though, in its quest for Undecided Whales, isn’t ready to move on from the past few years. And people are talking about the spot — though, as we’ve learned, not all publicity is good publicity. At least it wasn’t boring? Maybe, but given where we are as a nation and a people, maybe Nike shouldn’t have chosen this message for its reentry, after a 27-year absence, into the wide world of Super Bowl advertising.  ,
True, Nike dominates the market, and” So Win” isn’t likely to change that. However, it would be nice if those in charge of corporate culture understood that not everything has to be a battle of the sexes. That it’s honorable to acknowledge and celebrate men. That women are doing OK. That when the urge hits to pander during a football game, maybe say,” Just don’t do it”. We’re in this world together, working to complement one another, to help one another, to be strong together.
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.  ,
