Tons of golden statues were handed out Sunday for the Oscars. But perhaps the biggest winners of all were Serena Williams and Nike, thanks to a powerful new TV spot that aired during the show.
The 90-second spot features several prominent female athletes, including Williams (who also narrates the ad) and Olympians Simone Biles, Chloe Kim, and Ibtihaj Muhammad. It inspires female athletes (and all of us) by flipping common criticisms of women on their heads.
It comes at a poignant time for both Nike and Serena. This is Nike’s follow-up to their controversial Colin Kaepernick spot, which garnered both praise and criticism. They’ve clearly been following the new ad’s message by doing some big thinking themselves, as evidenced by these past two works.
And Serena was recently criticized for reacting against the umpire in a U.S. Open match, which many people scolded in the ways she discusses here – by calling her overdramatic, for example.
It’s hard to imagine this spot being viewed as controversial the way Nike’s other recent work has been; after all, who could disagree with such an empowering message? But it is bold, and that’s an adjective frequently used to describe Nike these days.
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