This 1995 TV Ad About Female Sports Could Never Air Today

Every time someone brings up transgender men in female sports, my mind immediately wanders to a commercial I first saw roughly three decades ago (and haven’t seen since).

In today’s political climate, the networks would likely refuse to air it. 

I didn’t remember who paid for the ad. I only remembered it showcased several elementary- and high school-aged girls begging their parents to let them play sports.

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The commercial is available on YouTube. I didn’t have to dig long or hard to find it this weekend. 

First broadcast nationwide in 1995, several girls tell their elders that female sports gives them self-confidence. Athletics, they went on to say, lowers their odds of getting breast cancer by 60 percent. Through female sports, they will suffer far less depression. Athletics will make them more likely to leave men who physically abuse them. Finally, female sports will make them less likely to get pregnant before they’re ready to carry a child.  

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At the time, leftist Oprah Winfrey gave the ad her total endorsement. She said it gave her chills and called it her “all-time favorite commercial.”

So who sponsored this groundbreaking piece of mass communication? 

Drumroll please.

Wait for it……………………….wait…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..Nike.

(Ta Dah).

Nike, of course, is the company that not too long ago went full-blown woke. The company’s pivot to left-wing politics may have scored big with the urban demographic. The change, nevertheless, insulted and alienated millions of (now former) customers in Flyover Country, most of whom refuse to buy Nike ever again.

A few years back, Nike released an ad featuring a biological woman who transitioned into a (supposed) man. Last year, Nike hired transgender Dylan Mulvaney to sell sports bras 🤮. 

But I digress.

In 1995, Nike obviously wanted to empower women. Nike wanted women to compete on a level playing field. According to most reasonable people, a level playing field is one where nobody has a distinct and unfair advantage over anyone else, unless, of course, they work hard and/or possess natural talent. According to the rules of good sportsmanship, there are no steroids, no age discrepancies. and, last but not least, no differences in biological gender.

I assume that in 1995, at least, Nike bigwigs believed in good sportsmanship, even if they don’t anymore?

ESPN released a similar ad as recent as six years ago. In it, female athletes explain why they need to have this space for themselves. 

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“I do not agree that playing like a man is a compliment,” one female athlete in the ad said.

“What I am doing here is not for you.”

Later on, the same athlete said this:

“For every woman, every girl who dares to see herself as something more than a body to be raided, a score to be kept, when I play, I keep my own score,” she said. 

“When I play, I know who I am. When I play, I forget how it feels to be boxed in, to be boxed out. When I play, I feel no shame. When I play, I remember how it feels to be free.”

If any network tried to air those ads today, then somebody would throw a tantrum.  

Perhaps it’s time to put both ads back into circulation, if only to remind America of a time when our opinionmakers were actually sane. 

Special thanks to Warhammer’s Wife for proofreading this story before publication to make certain there were no misspellings, grammatical errors or other embarrassing mistakes and/or typos. Follow Warhammer on Twitter (or is it X Now?) @Real_Warhammer