Vancouver Whitecaps FC alienates female fans before the first kick

posted by Women in Sport International
Thursday, March 17, 2011 at 3:14pm EDT

A blog that addresses the tough questions in sport that are important to women and girls.

This photo and promotional video is causing a stir in British Columbia and online. The Vancouver Whitecaps FC, which has yet to play its first game in Major League Soccer (MLS), launched the marketing campaign in advance of the 2011 season to, clearly, attract a young male audience. The video and photo feature a young model that has been spray-painted into a "uniform" with only a Bell logo across her breasts. Other than the jersey, which is hardly the center of attention, there is no mention of soccer or the football club until the end of the video when the logo is finally displayed. Clearly the team is selling sexuality, not soccer, and the Whitecaps potential female fans are disgruntled.

Daphne Bramham, a columnist with the Vancouver Sun, had an interview with former Olympian Marion Lay about the ad. Lay said that:

“It is a terrible representation of women. And it needs to stop. We need to say, society needs to say, enough is enough. At some point in sport we have to look at how to market and promote our sports in a way that is not so sexist and so detrimental to women.”

“I can’t imagine an athlete says, ‘I would like you to represent my level of excellence with the exploitation of women.' Maybe we’re just numb to it because we sell cars by exploiting women and sell so many products in this way. But I just think in sport we should do better than that.”

She went on to say that professional teams ought to sell tickets based on the athletic excellence. She pointed to the fact that all of the events – women’s and men’s – at the 2010 Winter Games sold out quickly without Vanoc resorting to sexualizing or demeaning women.

This marketing campaign could end up being a disaster for the Whitecaps, who had previously worked hard to promote soccer for both boys and girls in the Vancouver community. More than a few women in the Vancouver community are upset with the hyper-sexualized images. These "soccer moms", female players and female fans of the game have been alienated from the team before the first kick.

In a country where women are participating in sport in record numbers, and where women are becoming the primary income earner in some families, it is extremely dangerous for a professional sports team to completely alienate that segment of the population through blatantly sexualized media campaigns. If the Whitecaps want to exist without the support of women, so be it.

And good luck, they will need it.

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There are 2 comments on this post. Join the discussion!

yostk321 says:

This should not be sexualized at all. This is terrible, given that the Whitecaps are also trying to start a WPS team as well, which should also not be sexualized.

Friday, March 18, 2011 at 2:56pm EDT

erindurant4 says:

I was very surprised when I heard about this Whitecaps campaign. It must be frustrating for the athletes on the team as well, their skills as an athlete should be highlighted, not the body of a kit model.

Hopefully the negative publicity about the ad campaign will smarten up the marketing team in the future.

Friday, March 18, 2011 at 10:26pm EDT

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Vancouver Whitecaps FC alienates female fans before the first kick

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