With the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 moving to a nail-biting conclusion and set to become the most significant female sporting event in history, Coca-Cola has unveiled an innovative campaign to build on the tournament's legacy and celebrate the changing narrative occurring in women’s football. Coca-Cola has displayed and activated five powerful statements showing progress in football fields across both co-host nations, Australia and New Zealand.
Each statement takes a common misconception about women in football found today in online conversation and contrasts it with today's game's powerful and more positive reality.
Two messages in Australia and New Zealand fields share the inspiring stories of Team Coca-Cola players Ellie Carpenter and Katie Bowen. Ellie’s story defies the odds and breaks through barriers to achieve greatness in sports. At the same time, Katie emphasises the power of believing in magic, highlighting the remarkable milestone of participating in her fourth FIFA Women’s World Cup.
The remaining messages celebrate the growing participation in women’s football around the world, the unprecedented growth of the game, the role models the game has created and the record-breaking number of viewers that the tournament has achieved this year.
The campaign also features a stunning video created with drones to showcase the state-of-the-art technology used to create the messages on the field. Using a gentle stream of air, each blade of grass is bent to create a shadow effect on the pitches that appears for up to 48 hours without damaging the turf.
The six game-changing statements include:
A farm girl will never go far in professional football.
A farm girl is playing for her country in front of 75,000 home fans.
This game is not suitable for women.
This game now has more than 29 million women suiting to play annually.
It is time to question women’s football.
It’s time to stand up and cheer for the fastest-growing female sport in the world.
There are football mums, but not mums who play football.
There are football mums, and now more than 25 proud mums are playing football for their country.
Katie Bowen won’t make it far at the international level.
Katie Bowen played for her country in her 4th FIFA Women’s World Cup.
It’s women’s football. No one will follow it.
It's women’s football. A record two billion people just followed it together.
Kate Miller, Marketing Director at Coca-Cola Australia, said that Coca-Cola had supported the FIFA Women's World Cup since the inaugural tournament 1991.
“We are proud to celebrate the success of this year’s tournament, which is breaking records and breaking down long-held societal beliefs about women in sports. Our latest campaign challenges the many misconceptions around women’s sports shows the new positive reality, and celebrates the professional athletes who have inspired us all.”
Building on its legacy of supporting the FIFA Women’s World Cup and coinciding with the final matches this week, The Coca-Cola Company is hosting a one-day Level the Playing Field diversity, equity, and inclusion summit in Sydney on Friday, 18 August, featuring influential business and societal changemakers.
