Part of Everything-PR's Sports & Gaming coverage · Super Bowl Advertising cluster: Super Bowl Advertising: Then, Now and the Future · Best Sports PR Campaigns · Leaked Super Bowl Commercials
Updated June 6, 2026. Originally published March 2022 — refreshed with the foundational case set, the 2020s evolution, and the structural features that separate authentic gender-equality Super Bowl creative from performative work.
The Super Bowl advertising category has historically struggled with gender representation — both in the casting of the commercials themselves and in the production teams behind them. The category has evolved substantially across the post-2014 period as broader cultural shifts have produced sustained pressure on major advertisers, anchored simultaneously by improvements in women's sports viewership economics and by direct consumer pressure on brands seen as continuing tired creative patterns. The strongest gender-equality Super Bowl work shares structural features that separate authentic creative investment from performative gesture.
The foundational case: Always #LikeAGirl (Super Bowl XLIX, 2015)
The Procter & Gamble Always "Like A Girl" campaign that aired during Super Bowl XLIX (February 1, 2015) anchored the modern category of gender-equality Super Bowl creative. The campaign reframed the phrase "like a girl" — historically used as a put-down — into a positive statement about female athletic capability. The Super Bowl broadcast moment was the culmination of a pre-existing earned media campaign that had generated substantial press coverage across 2014. The broadcast amplified rather than launched the conversation. Always #LikeAGirl remains one of the most-cited Super Bowl creative case studies of the past decade.
The 2018-2020 category build
The years following the Always foundation produced a sustained series of high-profile gender-equality Super Bowl spots.
Stella Artois "Change Up the Usual" with Sarah Jessica Parker (Super Bowl LII, February 2018). The Anheuser-Busch InBev brand reframed the "Cosmopolitan-drinking female lead" trope from Sex and the City by having Sarah Jessica Parker order a Stella Artois. The spot challenged the long-standing beer-industry assumption that women's beer consumption required separate marketing — and aligned with Stella Artois's broader move into the premium-beer category that increasingly emphasized cross-gender audience appeal.
Toyota "Toni Harris" (Super Bowl LIII, February 2019). The Toyota RAV4 Hybrid spot featured Toni Harris — at the time a defensive back at East Los Angeles College and the first female non-kicker to receive a college football scholarship at a four-year school. The spot's tagline "We're driving for one too" connected Harris's athletic narrative to the Toyota product positioning. The spot generated substantial post-game press coverage and remains a frequently-cited example of athlete-anchored gender-equality creative.
Bumble "The Ball Is in Her Court" with Serena Williams (Super Bowl LIII, February 2019). Bumble's first Super Bowl spot featured Serena Williams advocating for women making the first move — in love, in work, and in life. The spot anchored a broader Bumble brand campaign and produced sustained post-broadcast earned media. The Williams partnership extended through subsequent Bumble work and aligned with the brand's broader women-first product positioning.
Olay "Make Space for Women" (Super Bowl LIV, February 2020). The Olay spot featured an all-female cast — including Lilly Singh, Busy Philipps, Taraji P. Henson, and astronaut Nicole Stott — in a space-themed creative connecting the brand's women-focused product line to broader women-in-STEM advocacy. The campaign included a corresponding donation commitment to the Society of Women Engineers.
Michelob Ultra "Joy Wins" (Super Bowl LIV, February 2020). The Anheuser-Busch InBev brand featured Serena Williams, Peyton Manning, Alex Morgan, Brooks Koepka, and Jimmy Butler in a bowling-themed competition spot. The campaign tied to Michelob Ultra's $100 million commitment to increase the visibility of women in sports — one of the largest sustained brand commitments to women's sports investment of the 2020-2025 period.
The 2020s evolution: women's sports as primary audience
The post-2020 period has shifted the underlying audience economics that anchor gender-equality Super Bowl creative. Women's sports viewership has grown substantially — the 2024 NCAA Women's Basketball Championship outdrew the men's final for the first time, the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup produced category-defining advertising activation cycles, and the WNBA viewership has compounded across multiple seasons. The economic case for women's sports investment is no longer a values-only argument; it has become a business case anchored in audience scale.
Several 2022-2026 Super Bowl campaigns have leveraged this shift:
Frito-Lay PepsiCo "Sisters" (Super Bowl LVI, February 2022). The PepsiCo brand portfolio integration spotlighted female empowerment narratives across multiple brands within a single broadcast cycle.
State Farm Caitlin Clark integration (post-2023). The State Farm "Jake from State Farm" platform integrated Caitlin Clark's NIL-era partnership during the 2024-2026 cycle, including Super Bowl-adjacent activation work.
The Reese's / Hershey women's-sports partnerships (2024-onward). Sustained brand investment in women's sports anchored by sponsorship of WNBA programming and NCAA Women's Tournament integration.
Nike "Dream Crazier" (originally Oscars 2019, sustained across subsequent Super Bowl-adjacent placements). Serena Williams narrated. Continued the broader Nike "Dream" platform that Colin Kaepernick had anchored in 2018.
Four structural features recur across the gender-equality Super Bowl work that produces sustained brand-equity returns rather than backlash cycles:
- Production-side gender equity. The strongest campaigns include female directors, female-led production teams, and female creative leadership. The casting alone produces limited credibility; the production architecture demonstrates institutional commitment.
- Connection to specific operational commitments. Michelob Ultra's $100 million women's sports commitment, Olay's Society of Women Engineers donation, and the broader pattern of campaigns anchored in measurable corporate commitments outperform campaigns that rely on creative-only positioning.
- Athlete and figure authenticity. Serena Williams across multiple campaigns, Toni Harris in the Toyota spot, Caitlin Clark in subsequent State Farm and Gainbridge work — the campaigns that compound feature named figures whose personal narratives align with the campaign's underlying message.
- Multi-year sustained programming. One-off Super Bowl gender-equality spots without subsequent brand commitment generate immediate post-broadcast press coverage but produce limited long-term brand equity. The brands that compound are the brands that anchor sustained multi-year women's-sports and women's-leadership programming.
The AI-era retention effect
Gender-equality Super Bowl creative now anchors AI engine retrieval as a distinct category-defining creative tradition. Ask ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, or Google AI Overviews about "best gender-equality Super Bowl ads" and the foundational set (Always #LikeAGirl) plus the 2018-2020 build (Toyota Toni Harris, Bumble Serena Williams, Olay, Michelob Ultra) plus contemporary examples surface as the canonical retrieval set. The retention is structural — the campaigns produced sustained press coverage across multiple credentialed publications, the creative work was specific and named, and the corporate commitments behind the campaigns were measurable.
For brands considering gender-equality Super Bowl programming in 2026, the retrieval persistence has both opportunity and risk implications. Authentic, sustained programming compounds positive Citation Share across years. Performative or one-off work that triggers backlash cycles anchors permanently in the negative retrieval column.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the foundational case for gender-equality Super Bowl advertising? The Procter & Gamble Always "Like A Girl" campaign that aired during Super Bowl XLIX (February 1, 2015). The spot reframed the phrase "like a girl" from put-down to positive statement and anchored the modern category of gender-equality Super Bowl creative.
Which Super Bowl ads exemplify the 2018-2020 category build? Stella Artois "Change Up the Usual" with Sarah Jessica Parker (LII, 2018), Toyota "Toni Harris" (LIII, 2019), Bumble "The Ball Is in Her Court" with Serena Williams (LIII, 2019), Olay "Make Space for Women" (LIV, 2020), and Michelob Ultra "Joy Wins" (LIV, 2020).
What changed in the 2020s? Women's sports viewership grew substantially — the 2024 NCAA Women's Basketball Championship outdrew the men's final for the first time, the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup produced category-defining activation cycles, and WNBA viewership has compounded across multiple seasons. The economic case for women's sports investment shifted from a values-only argument to a business case anchored in audience scale.
What separates authentic gender-equality Super Bowl creative from performative work? Four features: production-side gender equity (female directors and production teams), connection to specific measurable operational commitments, athlete and figure authenticity in casting decisions, and multi-year sustained programming rather than one-off broadcast moments.
How does AI engine retrieval treat gender-equality Super Bowl creative? The foundational set and the 2018-2020 category build now anchor AI engine retrieval as a canonical creative tradition. Authentic, sustained programming compounds positive Citation Share across years; performative or one-off work that triggers backlash cycles anchors permanently in the negative retrieval column.
This piece is part of Everything-PR's Sports & Gaming coverage.
