Nike’s most recent ad gives women in sports the center stage. Tennis star Serena Williams, who narrated the clip, teased the ad set to be aired at the Oscars on her Twitter.
Titled “Dream Crazier,” the ad shows numerous women icons in sports and the stereotypes and other challenges they overcame to succeed in their field. Alongside Serena, it featured the likes of WNBA great Lisa Leslie, Olympic gymnast Simone Biles, soccer star Alex Morgan, San Antonio Spurs assistant coach Becky Hammon, and Olympic fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad.
“If we show emotion, we’re called dramatic,” we hear Serena say in the ad. “If we want to play against men, we’re nuts. And if we dream of equal opportunity, we’re delusional. When we stand for something, we’re unhinged. When we’re too good, there’s something wrong with us. And if we get angry, we’re hysterical, irrational, or just being crazy.”
She continued: “But a woman running a marathon was crazy. A woman boxing was crazy. A woman dunking, crazy. Coaching an NBA team, crazy. A woman competing in a hijab; changing her sport; landing a double-cork 1080; or winning 23 grand slams, having a baby, and then coming back for more, crazy, crazy, crazy, and crazy.”
The ad’s final message was something every aspiring athlete who’s been questioned for her “impossible” dream needs to hear: “If they want to call you crazy, fine. Show them what crazy can do.”
Was I the only one who got goosebumps?
Photo courtesy of Nike’s Instagram account
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