We at Beyond The W were relatively neutral to this season’s Super Bowl.
The game was a complete snoozefest as the Philadelphia Eagles virtually had the game won at the half. Patrick Mahomes and his Kansas City Chiefs were nowhere to be found and Kendrick Lamar’s halftime performance was a bigger highlight than the game itself.
In other words, we were treated to a Kendrick concert that happened to include a football game.
At least Dawn Staley, Natasha Cloud and Kahleah Copper – all Philly icons – were pleased with the result. Both Philadelphia and Kansas City have been seen as possible destinations for the WNBA’s 16th franchise after the W officially announced its expansion to Golden State, Toronto and Portland.
One element of the Super Bowl that gets people talking is the commercials. And we fully expected that a sizable portion of those very expensive Big Game spots would feature a heavy dose of artificial intelligence.
But a couple of the commercials particularly got our attention. First – Nike.
Nike had not released a Super Bowl commercial since 1998 – and the Swoosh could not have picked a better time to re-enter the Big Game ad chat.
Look at the star power featured in this ad. A’ja Wilson. Caitlin Clark. Sabrina Ionescu. JuJu Watkins. Jordin Chiles. Sha’Carri Richardson. Sophia Wilson. The Doechii narration. The Led Zeppelin instrumental in the background of the ad.
If there was any more proof that women’s sports are here to stay, being featured in a minute-long ad featuring some of the biggest names in women’s sports during the most-watched made-for-television event on the 2025 calendar is a plenty large proof of evidence.
But that was not the only Super Bowl ad we noticed that peeped a few of our WNBA ladies. Ba da ba ba baaa….
It was not that long ago that McDonald’s announced its Angel Reese Meal. It is far from the first time the Golden Arches has done a spot with a high-profile celebrity – but the first time it has done so with someone from the women’s basketball ranks.
Something tells us this meal will especially be a hit in the DMV, Louisiana and in McDonald’s backyard of Chicago. The ad was also a minute-long ad – similar to the Nike ad – and also featured Breanna Stewart, Lisa Leslie and Latto.
One unifying feature of both the McDonald’s and Nike ads were how they harkened back to previous ads both released during the Big Game. McDonald’s ad with Reese and Stewie playing one-on-one was a reference to their 1993 ad it released which featured Larry Bird and Michael Jordan.
Nike’s last Super Bowl ad in 1998 featured all male athletes. Apparently, both Nike and McDonald’s have adapted to the times by realizing that sports are not only a male space. This generation of women athletes are more than deserving of being household names to the point where they are featured prominently at mainstream events like the Super Bowl.
But we noticed that there were Big Game ads that not only referenced women athletes, but also women empowerment. A good example of this was the ad from Dove – a company who has branded itself heavily around women empowerment and body positivity.
The Dove spot prominently notes the reality that there is a prevailing epidemic of girls turning away from sports solely because of how they are made to feel overly conscious of their bodies in their teenage years.
Then – there was that ad from the NFL itself – in our opinion, one of the better ones of the entire Big Game. It featured NFL notables such as Justin Jefferson, Marshawn Lynch and Myles Garrett as well as ESPN’s Pat McAfee.
The aim of that ad – which aired after the Lamar halftime show – is part of the NFL’s push to make girls flag football an officially sanctioned sport in all 50 states. It is already sanctioned in states such as New York, California, Illinois, Hawaii, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Florida, Colorado and Nevada among others.
Brands are understanding that sports can indeed be an avenue for women’s empowerment along with capitalizing on the growing popularity that the realm of women’s sports – from basketball to soccer to softball to volleyball – are seeing.
The four aforementioned ads are great ads. The only thing we ask in the future is that companies highlight that transgender girls and women are indeed girls and women as well – and that there is no better time than now to push back on the political assault that is being leveled in their way.
Women’s sports already had validated themselves even prior to these ads being shown at various points throughout the Big Game. And these brands certainly deserve praise for recognizing that empowering women through sport is not only good business but good social optics. We are in the year 2025 (even though some days it feels as if we are back in 1945).
But – only one note to these brands – understand that all women are women – including those who use they/them pronouns.
