Francisco Seco/Associated Press
Moments after the United States women’s soccer team won the World Cup last month, Nike released a bracing commercial celebrating the championship as a triumph of female empowerment.
“We will keep fighting not just to make history, but to change it, forever!” the ad’s narrator says as a crowd of voices bursts into the ubiquitous “I believe that we will win” cheer.
The impeccably timed and beautifully crafted spot was an implicit endorsement by Nike of players who are suing the U.S. Soccer Federation for equal pay, a particularly expedient position for a company that recently had been accused of gender discrimination by both sponsored athletes and employees.