The Perils of Female Sports Advertising

Game, Sex and Match: The Perils of Female Sports Advertising

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But according to a number of sports-media researchers, the campaign — like so many others in female sports—undermines its players' achievements by sexualizing them, inadvertently or otherwise. And that just adds insult to injury. A recent study found that major television networks in the U.S. devote just 1.6% of airtime to women's sports — down from 6.3% in 2004 — and across TV and print media, female athletics makes up, at most, 8% of overall sports coverage. When female athletes are featured in ads, it tends to be in ways that hyperfeminize them rather than highlighting their athletic competence. "Yes, these women are beautiful, but we see lots of cleavage and legs, and it's set to music that is reminiscent of soft-core porn," says Nicole LaVoi, associate director of the Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sports at the University of Minnesota. "That might be interesting and titillating, but it isn't going to make me turn on Wimbledon."

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