In the aftermath of a World Cup run that ended too soon for many but nevertheless raised soccer's profile in this country, the marketing minds at Nike have produced a "thank you" spot in honor of the U.S. National Team's somewhat transcendent performance.


The tenor of the ad is well-struck, and while it takes a few liberties with the facts (make no mistake: Americans do dive on occasion), the kids in the commercial speak for most of us when they laud the characteristics so often associated with this American team. Hard work. Dedication. The American spirit.


But not everyone is enthralled with the ad. Noticeably absent from Nike's ode to our boys is any girls; this has rubbed some the wrong way, leading to Amanda (also knows as Commie on Twitter) to file this from a post on her personal blog:

...the reaction is “how awesome, how inspiring, how great, Nike’s getting it right.” And no, they’re really not. Because representation matters. Who’s shown matters, and even more, who’s excluded matters. What Nike is saying here, intention aside, is that only boys can be inspired by the men’s national team. Only boys can take pride in “that goal,” or the other goal. Girls? You’re invisible, and therefore irrelevant, unless you grow up “hot” and we can use your body to sell shirts for the men’s team.

This is not Amanda's first issue with Nike, as she clearly indicates, and she links to a Jennifer Doyle post at From a Left Wing that points out that the company's "Write the Future" ad uses women only as "sex objects and jokes."


In a country with a long history of female participation and a strong following for both national teams among female fans, Nike's marketing output in this vein is never going to go without scrutiny. The lack of girls in the "Thank You" ad, which as Amanda says appears to indicate Nike believes only boys can be inspired by the men's team, is another brick in the wall built by some questionable steps during the World Cup selling season. This includes the aforementioned problems with "Write the Future" and putting a Playboy model in the U.S. home jersey (careful, link goes to Playboy.com). But does this particular ad, taken on its own merits without the added negative weight of Nike's other gaffs, indicate a willful lack of respect for the female fan base?


It may depend on Nike's intentions, and could be a response to the general irrelevance of the men's team on the international stage; if we were to somehow quantify inspiration provided by the like-gender national team, it would be hard to argue that young male soccer players here aren't at a deficit to their female counterparts. Mia Hamm, Michelle Akers, Brandi Chastain, Abby Wambach, Julie Foudy; the list of world class female footballers the United States has produced, players who have helped the national team to win the biggest titles in the game, dwarfs any list possible with an American men's team whose trophy case is empty beyond a few regional titles. The impact of Donovan's moment, the winning goal scored against Algeria in extra time, cannot be understated as a new bit of encouragement for American boys to fall in love with the sport.


From that like-for-like standpoint, Nike's ad is 45 seconds of the next generation of U.S. men taking inspiration from the current one. If there's sexism there, it's passive; while it's unfair to imply by exclusion that girls cannot be as equally inspired by Donovan and Co. as boys might be, the reality of the matter is that boys are perceived to be in greater need of American inspiration. It's impossible to know if Nike was in fact deferring to that perception, or just failed to consider girls as part of the group that would be exhilarated by the World Cup run.


The sexist nature of this latest Nike ad is in the eye of the beholder. Many see a brilliant piece of visual media conveying the feelings of a nation of soccer lovers through the words of kids, never giving a thought to the particular gender of those kids. Others see the ode as exclusionary and unfair, another example of the inherent sexism of sports rearing its ugly head.


We'll conclude with Amanda's message for the suits in Beaverton, a strongly worded admonition for Nike not to forget that women are an integral part of soccer in America:

Think for two seconds about the disservice you’re doing to the next generation’s Mia Hamm (and Hope Solo and Tasha Kai) by writing her out of this video, by telling her that she doesn’t count as a fan. Representation matters, and Nike, in this World Cup, you’ve ignored or mocked women and girls, as fans and players. We deserve more, and we deserve better.
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