In the last week of July, US retailer Dick’s Sporting Goods released an integrated campaign leveraging Tokyo 2020 called ‘There She Is’ which sought to empower female athletes and celebrate their efforts in climbing to the top of the Olympic podium.
The hero commercial, which was infused with the chords of the Bert Parks 1950s track ‘There She Is’, juxtaposes vibrant images of athletes training and struggling to make their dreams come true.
The ad features 20 all-star female athletes including boxer Heather Hardy, swimmer Ella Eastin, soccer player Jordan Jesolva, volleyball player Emily Cooke, rugby player Margaret Lee, gymnast Nia Dennis, fencing star Isis Washington, and track runner Destinee Brown, football player Nashi Catron, hammer thrower Kristin Smith, weightlifter Denise Tam, softball players Aubree Munro and Brooke Yanez, volleyball player Gina Stabile, rugby player Evi Ashenbrucker, volleyball players Anita Lerner, Silvia Fernandez and Sydney Landsman and wrestler Jessica Medina.
The 60-second spot spans television and social media platforms through July, while the campaign also included in-store signage (linked to local female athletes in some of its 731 stores), email support, earned social media and featured in a spread in the September issue of Vogue.
The campaign – developed in harness with creative agency Anomaly, with media planning and buying handled by Haworth and social media activity by AdParlor – sees the retailer call on viewers to support local female sports stars in local communities across America.
“The focus of this campaign is defying societal ideals that are placed on individuals and showcasing how beauty, strength and inspiration comes in all forms,” explained Dick’s CMO Ed Plummer. “We hope the ‘There She Is’ thematic continues to elevate and empower athletes beyond the Olympics.”
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This stereotype-busting campaign, which generated 7.2m views on Dick’s own YouTube channel in its first two weeks, celebrates women in general, the wider notion of femininity and female athletes in particular and rolled out as women took centre stage at Tokyo 2020.
It is hard to imagine that when Bert Parks first crooned “There she is, Miss America” back in the 1950s that he could never have imagined the new Dick’s Sporting Goods television commercial now airing set to his signature song
The campaign is part of a wider, umbrella strategy by Dick’s to ramp up its commitment to women both on and off the field.
Amongst its other recent initiatives were a $5m grant to the US Soccer Foundation’s ‘United for Girls’ initiative, a partnership with USA Softball and the US Women’s National Team and forming the company’s first ‘Girls Power Panel’ consisting of girls aged 13-to-17 to advise it on products, plus donating more than 100,000 bras to under-resourced female athletes across the country in 2021.
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