Super Bowl ads & women's sport
It’s NFL Super Bowl Day this Sunday. Women’s tackle football or American football doesn’t have a Super Bowl of this magnitude… yet, but in the meantime, we can focus on the significance of the all-important ads.
In recent years, brands have increasingly used this extremely valuable (and expensive - $8m for 30 seconds!) time slot to show their support of women and women’s sports. We decided to have a look at some of the best ads of the last few years and how they’re changing.
Why do brands show their support for women’s sport during the Super Bowl ad break?
You might be wondering.
Almost half the people watching the Super Bowl on screens (ie not live) are women. To just market to men would be missing out on a huge chunk of the viewing public. It would be extremely narrow minded and would send the message that tackle football is for men only. This is not a reflection of real life at all.
Brands know and have known for a long time that women hold the purse strings in a family. Women make more purchases so it makes sense to market to them.
They also know that empowering storytelling aimed at women has impact. It helps to build brand recognition and favorability, all of which forms part of the purchasing journey.
In recent years there has been a huge surge in interest in women’s sports. A female-orientated Super Bowl half-time ad shows that brands ‘get it’ and are part of this movement of support and growth.
Placing women and female brands front and centre in a male dominated sporting spectacle shows that these brands believe in inclusivity.
Super Bowl ads through the ages
2019
Back in 2019, the NFL was celebrating 100 years and they had an ad themselves showcasing many NFL stars. It’s a long one but if you hold on, there is a cameo from Samantha Gordon, the woman who is seen as the pioneer of women’s tackle football aka American football. In 2015 she was a founding member of the Utah All-Girls Tackle Football League. We can’t show it here due to NFL limitations but you can view it here.
In the same year, Serena Williams was showing that the ball was in her court in this ad for Bumble, the dating app. She had a starring role, unlike Samantha Gordon, and while this may not have been a sporting brand, it was about female empowerment.
2022
We then leap forward a few years and find Serena Williams again. This time she’s in a beer ad for Michelob Ultra alongside other sporting greats, male and female. It’s set in a bowling alley and features Alex Morgan, soccer player, and Nneka Ogwumike, basketballer for the women. Again, this is not a sports brand but women are coming more to the fore. They’re not just cameos as Gordan was in 2019.
2023
Women were really holding their own by 2023 in Super Bowl ads and when it came to sport, this year it was the turn of tackle football’s relative flag football (an Olympic sport in 2028). Diana Flores is a Mexican flag football player and one of the sports ambassadors. The slogan at the end of the advertisement is ‘To the women pushing football forward’ making it very clear that flag is an inclusive sport.
2025
And now to last year where there was not one but two impactful ads during the Super Bowl.
The Dove commercial was very simple. A little girl, maybe four or five years of age, running down the street. She’s smiling, she looks happy and it was all accompanied by a female vocalist H.E.R singing ‘Born to Run’. The message behind it all was about body confidence and helping girls stay active.
The Nike ad was full of big stars including Caitlin Clark and A’Ja Wilson from basketball, athlete Sha’Carri Richardson and gymnast Jordan Chiles. It was in black and white and super stylish; it oozed cool. Its message was all about doing what female athletes (and perhaps women in general) are told what not to do - to not be emotional, to not be demanding, to not be competitive. Watch it here and tell us you don’t feel like breaking some stereotypes afterwards!
And let’s not forget that Serena Williams dropped in on the half-time entertainment too in this year, dancing alongside Kendrick Lamar.
2026
It doesn’t look, at this stage, as though there are any sports brands featuring women athletes in this year’s Super Bowl ads but we’re pretty sure Serena Williams is appearing again.
We’ll just have to wait and see if the tradition of impactful ads featuring strong female athletes continues.
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