Coca-Cola Leaves Messages On Soccer Fields To Mark Women’s World Cup Success

With the Spanish and English Women’s World Cup teams having booked their places in the finals, Coca-Cola is acknowledging the success of this year’s tournament by shining the spotlight on how attitudes have changed toward female soccer players.

To do this, it placed inspiring statements across soccer fields in co-host nations Australia and New Zealand, transforming common misconceptions about women’s participation in the sport into positive messages.

According to Stop Press, two of the featured messages touch on the background of Team Coca-Cola players Ellie Carpenter and Katie Bowen, acknowledging the pair’s effort in defying the odds, breaking barriers, and “believing in the magic” during their time in the competition.

Other messages, which were filmed using drones flying over the fields, include tales on how “a farm girl” who most used to believe would “never go far in professional football” now represents her country in front of 75,000 cheering fans.

It takes misogynistic sentiments—like ones about women not being fit to play soccer—and switches them around, highlighting how over 29 million female players put on their shin guards and roll up their socks to participate in the sport annually.

Kate Miller, marketing director at Coca-Cola Australia, told The Drum that the popular soda, which has supported the Women’s World Cup since its inception in 1991, is “really proud” to mark the rounding success of the contest.

By challenging the common stereotypes female players face and changing the narrative surrounding women’s soccer, the campaign hopes to create a positive spin for more of the public to take an interest in the sport.

[via Stop Press and The Stable, image screenshots via Coca-Cola Australia]