A French soccer advertisement has gone viral ahead of the 2023 Women’s World Cup exposing gender bias in the sport.
The clip — which has gone viral on social media with over 4 million views on Youtube — begins with the biggest of what appears to be the men’s team. Broadcasters enthusiastically recall the game as players frequently score goals and clip snippets from cheering fans.
“Wow, what a great team!” the voiceover exclaims in French. “It’s the football we love! »
The video then cuts to black and the words “Only Blues Can Give Us These Feelings”. But that’s not what you just saw” appear on the screen. (Les Bleus is the name of France’s men’s soccer team).
The ad then replays the featured tape and cuts to a clip of someone editing the footage to show that the men were scoring when in fact it was the women’s team instead. Detailed deepfake clips are shown side by side, and then the original footage is shown. Then the video showed the same distinctive clip, but with soccer players scoring goals.
The final message of the video reads: “At Orange, when we support Les Bleus, we support Les Bleues.” (Orange is a popular telecom company in France, while Les Bleues is the name of the country’s women’s soccer team.)
The ad was originally launched in June to promote the Women’s World Cup which officially kicks off on Saturday 22nd July in New Zealand. After the ad was released, an Orange spokesperson told CNN about the inspiration behind the ad’s meaning.
For the majority of soccer fans (and that’s the problem), the general consensus is that “men’s soccer is better, faster and more exciting than women’s soccer”. “We also know that football videos are a huge hit on the internet,” a company spokesperson told the outlet on Thursday, July 20. “It was necessary in the first half of the video, for viewers to believe that they appreciate male actions and the only way to believe it is… to re-transform women into men!”
For its part, the US women’s soccer team has been fighting for equal pay since 2016. Carli Lloyd It revealed that the group received only 40% of the income of their male counterparts at the time – despite their better performance in tournaments. The team then filed a grievance of wrongdoing and sued the NFL for gender discrimination.
The suit was settled in February 2022, with each player winning a total of $24 million, per ESPN. In September of that year, the United States men’s and women’s national teams signed an equal pay agreement promising comparable pay for World Cup matches, tournaments, and prize money. At the 2023 ESPYs, the team received the Arthur Ashe Courage Award for their contribution to the sport on and off the field.
“What we’ve been able to do is really amazing,” Brianna Scurrysaid the American goalkeeper who was part of the 1996 strike for equal pay during the Olympics, while accepting the award on behalf of the team. “There have been 252 women who have worn the jersey of the US National Team since its inception. We accept this award on behalf of all of them.”
