IIt begins like any typical sports commercial, combining clips of thrilling on-field action, a dramatic musical theme and the exhilarating narration of color commentators. In this case, the focus seems to be on the deft footwork of French football maestro Antoine Griezmann and the prowess of his world-famous teammate. Kylian Mbappé.
“Only Blues can give us these emotions,” they read on the screen, in reference to the nickname of the French men’s team. “But these aren’t the ones you just saw.”
In the middle of the 2-minute video, produced by the Marcel agency for the French telecom operator Orange, a revelation occurs: the entire montage was a deep fake. The faces of the male footballers had been superimposed on the bodies – and reflections – of their female counterparts, Sakina Karchaoui and Delphine Cascarino, among others.
“At Orange, when we support Blueswe support the Blues», Read the last words of the advertisement, also referring to the nickname of the French women’s team.
The announcement was first published in late June in anticipation of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup which debuts July 20, but it gained widespread attention last week after being reshared on Twitter, Tic Tac, Redditand other social media platforms, where thousands of fans marveled at the visual effects and the message it contained.
“This absolutely blew my mind,” one Reddit user commented. “A clever way for people to confront their prejudices,” said another.
“Football is football. Sport is sport. » tweeted Craig Foster, retired Australian rules footballer. “Get into a sport played by women,” he added.
Often described as less exciting, women’s football has long lagged behind men’s football in terms of international popularity. But more and more, people are starting to realize that women’s football has not been given the credit it is due.
When Cristiano Ronaldo scored his 110th and 111th goals for Portugal in 2021, he was hailed as the best player in the world.top scorer in international football.” However, this record should have had a qualifier: with his current total of 123 goals, Ronaldo has scored the most goals in Men’s international competition, but seven women scored moreincluding Canadian Christine Sinclair, who has 190 goals in international competition.
Likewise, after Lionel Messi led the Argentina men’s team to victory at last year’s World Cup, FIFA published an article about all the World Cup records he now holds. Among them, we can read: “Messi is the only player to have scored in the World Cup as a teenager, between 20 and 30 years old”. Yet it’s a feat that at least two players – Brazilian Marta and former American star Mia Hamm – have already achieved. And with his performance in the final in Qatar in DecemberFIFA declared that “Messi played the most minutes in World Cup history: 2,314”, but retired US captain Kristine Lilly recorded 2,536 minutes in World Cup tournaments.
During the last years, some progress was made towards the recognition of value and the appeal of women’s football, and organizers say up to two billion viewers could follow the Women’s World Cup organized this summer in Australia and New Zealand. But many football observers still don’t give the women’s sport as much importance as its men’s equivalent.
Learn more: Megan Rapinoe fights for tie and third World Cup title
A study published last week by the University of Zurich revealed that the quality of performances in men’s and women’s football are actually judged the same way when the gender of the players is obscured. However, when the gender of the players was revealed to the study subjects, the men’s football performance was rated significantly higher.
“Our results,” Carlos Gomez, co-author of the study, said in a statement. Press release“refute the hypothesis that the low demand for women’s professional football is based on the quality of players’ performances”.
Orange’s viral ad claims exactly that.
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