Nike Takes A Wrecking Ball To A Parked Bus For New NWSL Season ‘This Is Our Beautiful Game’ Campaign

In its first campaign for the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL), partner Nike smashes a wrecking ball into the side of a bus to bring to life the league’s commitment to attacking football.

 

Playing on the ‘park the bus’ soccer cliché used to describe defensive tactics, the campaign seeks to champion the idea that the new NWSL season will be anything but dull and will be dominated by attacking football.

 

The hero spot literally takes a construction wrecking ball – wrapped as an official NWSL Nike football – to a parked bus. The 60-second video is intercut with footage of soccer stars Sophia Smith, Mallory Swanson, Rose Lavelle and Alex Morgan playing on the pitch, whilst the bus is smashed to smithereens.

 

Thus, the players literally smash apart the ‘park the bus’ metaphor.

 

‘This Is Our Beautiful Game’, which dropped across TV and online platforms from 1 April, includes the copy: “No matter how much of your team parks itself in front of the goal, no matter how much you try to slow the match down, no matter how much you try to tiki-taka your way around, nothing can stand in the way of our beautiful game.”

 

 

Created by Wieden+Kennedy Portland, this is both Nike’s and the agency’s first ad campaign for the NWSL – despite the former being linked to the league since 2012 and has supplied several teams with kit and equipment through apparel partnerships.

 

 

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The ad is helmed by Jackass Director Jeff Tremaine, a former professional BMX rider recently worked on the Liquid Death campaign to launch its range of ice teas, who takes his customary heavy-handed, destructive and direct approach to the narrative arc.

 

 

Nike’s campaign rolled out two weeks after the NWSL itself launched its own ‘We Play Here’ marketing campaign for its 11th season which kicked off on Saturday, 25 March.

 

The league also released schedule details for the newly formatted 2023 UKG NWSL Challenge Cup, set to begin on 19 April and conclude on 15 October. The NWSL’s 11th regular season includes 12 teams each playing a 22-match league campaign (with 11 home games and 11 away games per club) making a 132-game regular season played out over 22 weeks. Six teams will then qualify for the NWSL Playoffs culminating in the 2023 NWSL Championship on 11 November.

 

Both the regular season and the NWSL Challenge Cup will be broadcast across CBS Sports platforms: including The CBS Television Network, CBS Sports Network and Paramount+.

 

The schedule format was devised to limit the number of regular season games to avoid conflict for the leading USA players who will head off to Australia and New Zealand for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup between 20 July and 20 August.