Super Bowl LIX was boring. The Eagles flew away with the lead early and kept it. The Chiefs failed to do what they’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 don’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.
Save for one spot — that is, Nike’s “So Win.” Backed by Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love,” the ad cycles through a variety of tropes about women in sports and then suggests embracing them. The narrator offers statements like, “You can’t fill a stadium, so fill a stadium,” and “You can’t be emotional, so be emotional.” First, Caitlin Clark can fill stadiums. She was not featured during that segment. Second, outside of “A League of Their Own,” since when have emotions been verboten in sports? Third, and most important, what was the point of that ad?
Mostly it was to get kudos from places like Adweek, a trade publication that praised Nike for “making a statement ‘while most brands are playing it safe.’” And certainly, that is true to an extent. “Creatives” are often anything but, 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 not on Nike.
Substack writer Ethan Strauss discussed this at length in his inaugural piece on the platform, writing, “[Nike is] a company built on masculinity, most specifically Michael Jordan’s alpha dog brand of it. Now, due to its own ambitions, scandals, and intellectual trends, Nike finds masculinity problematic enough to loudly reject.” That article, published in 2021, is titled “Nike’s End of Men.” 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 “Undecided Whale?”
Who knows? Maybe this time it will work. It’s not like Nike is hurting for cash. Its revenue in 2024 was $51 billion, and though that was not a huge jump from 2023, it’s still a nice chunk of change. Its market cap is $104.92 billion, meaning investors feel good about its growth potential. As a dedicated non-wearer of Nike, for both its insistence on letting boys play girls’ sports as well as its fondness for slave labor, I don’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.
While it’s true that women’s sports don’t generate a ton of revenue — the WNBA is behind an Australian cricket league, for example — most people, whether male or female, are not going to fill stadiums. Less than 2 percent of college players go pro. When it comes to going to college, though, the balance currently favors the fairer sex, 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.
They’re not doing so badly in the professional world either, with 52 percent of “management, professional, and related occupations” going to women. Given the trends in higher education, one doesn’t have to be Nostradamus to predict which direction that trendline will go over the coming years.
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. Also, Always solved all these problems with its #LikeAGirl campaign back in 2014. 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. 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’s good 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.
This article has been updated since publication.
Jesus Christ is King
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