7:17
- culture
- January 31, 2019
Will Serena's Super Bowl ad make a difference?
Watch a first look at the ad, titled The Ball is in Her Court."
7:17
It's fitting, then, that Bumble is taking its message to the Super Bowl, where women are not among the players and where women have not historically been the target audience, even in the face of data showing they watch football.
\"For us, it’s catering to a different demographic watching the Super Bowl,\" said Williamson. \"There are so many women who watch the Super Bowl. We wanted that opportunity to really be in the living rooms of people across the nation and share our mission and share our story but to do it in the Bumble way, which is to go against what is expected of us to do.\"
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/GMA/serena-williams-bumble-ad-01-ht-jc-190130_hpEmbed_3x2_384.jpg\")
Williamson also pointed out the Super Bowl remains a great opportunity to reach men, this year with Bumble's message.
“How do you really approach empowering women without inviting men into that conversation as well?” she noted. \"We want this to be a moment that lifts confidence in women and really promotes equality.\"
Williams' Super Bowl ad is the kickoff to her partnership with Bumble on their global \"Make the First Move\" campaign. She will serve as a Global Advisor to Bumble to \"reinforce the brand’s mission to end misogyny and empower women around the world,\" according to company officials.
Bumble is joining the likes of Toyota, Olay and Michelob in bringing a female perspective to a traditionally male-focused national event.
Olay, the beauty brand owned by Procter & Gamble, is -- like Bumble -- advertising for the first time in a Super Bowl. Its horror film-inspired ad features Sarah Michelle Gellar.
Toyota's commercial will star Antoinette \"Toni\" Harris, who broke barriers as a female college football player. One of Michelob's two ads will feature actress Zoe Kravitz promoting the company's new organic beer.
A 30-second spot in this year's Super Bowl is reportedly going for upwards of $5 million, so the investment is not small for these companies.
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/GMA/serena-williams1-abc-ml-190131_hpMain_4x3t_384.jpg\")
“The climate has changed,” said Jeanine Poggi, senior editor of Ad Age. “With the #MeToo movement and things like that, there is a realization that there’s a big need to speak to the [female] audience and in a way they can appreciate and are not being talked down to.”
“Women were mostly portrayed as sex objects or stereotypes of [a] nagging wife or girlfriend or mother,” she said of Super Bowl commercials in previous years. “We haven’t seen those images in recent years, but there is still a major divide in the number of women who are in starring roles.”
Last year’s Super Bowl saw 13 women with starring or feature roles in commercials, compared to about 50 men. For this year’s game, there are currently 10 female celebrities slated to appear in Super Bowl ads, compared to 19 male celebrities, according to Poggi.
Yet women accounted for nearly half of all viewers of the 2018 Super Bowl. More than 60 percent of interactions on Facebook about the Super Bowl were sent by women, according to Nielsen.
Poggi, who has tracked Super Bowl commercials for years, called Bumble’s move in placing women both behind and in front of the camera “significant.”
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/GMA/serena-williams-bumble-ad-03-ht-jc-190130_hpEmbed_3x2_384.jpg\")
Bumble has been targeted since its launch by people uncomfortable with the brand's message of female empowerment. Company officials said that they are prepared for any backlash they receive for running a female-focused ad in the Super Bowl.
(MORE: Beyoncé and Gaga among those with the best Super Bowl halftime shows ever)
\"We’re always challenging the status quo and with that, it can definitely upset people, but for us, always as a platform, people who are upset by our message probably shouldn’t be on our platform anyway,\" said Williamson. \"We've learned that.\"
\"For us, any chance that we have the opportunity to change the perspective and change the way that women view the dynamics of themselves and their relationships is worth any potential blow back we can ever receive.\"
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