It's time to get tough in the media.
The sentence pronounced by the boss of the contents of the TF1 channel, in 2016, seems to have found its echo since for the first time, the Women's World Cup is broadcast in part on the first channel of France.
And the facts prove the headlines. According to Les Echos, for TF1, the Women's World Cup would prove to be more profitable than the 2018 World Cup. On an investment of 10 million euros, the front page would have already recovered 15.5 million in revenue and could earn 19, 5 million euros in the event of a potential final of the Blue. In comparison, the channel had earned 58 million euros in net advertising revenue thanks to the Mondial de la Bande in Deschamps in 2018 for a total investment of 75 million euros.
Indeed, advertisers have responded. The filling rate is 97% for the group matches, and 53% for the final stages; where the 30 seconds of promotion were negotiated at 56,000 euros at the 2015 World Cup in Canada, they are snapped up for the direct elimination matches of the Blue at 116,000 euros ... No wonder when the Ipsos barometer dating from March 2019 reveals that the he interest of women in France for football has jumped by 50% in five years: they are now 30% to declare themselves interested in football in general, against 20% in 2013-2014.
But what marketing for women's football? What advertising campaigns? Brief overview of advertisements ...
In 2011, the FFF launched a campaign to promote women's football with Adriana Karembeu in the spotlight. This glamorous campaign was reminiscent of the shock of 2009 where four players posed naked with a shocking slogan (“Does it have to come to this for you to come and see us play?”). In 2019, have things changed? Nike or Qatar Airways, if they notably feature a country governed by women's football, in which the players reign supreme, systematically include a male face, Neymar, in their advertisements. Women never without men, in short ...
SNCF advertising does not manage to disentangle itself from the clichés of ordinary sexism. “We were told, you will never make it. We were told, you don't have the talent, you have nothing to do here. The skills or performance of women are not put forward, but rather a notion of prevention and socialization of women. The exterior looks are more emphasized than the female performance. Values and beautiful images before victory and skills.
The operator Orange has certainly chosen the best angle by showing realism on the problem of the lack of media coverage of women's football teams. To produce the spot, Orange relied on figures collected after a survey of the general public on the perception of 5 players (Thiney, Le Sommer, Henry, Bouhaddi, Asseyi). 14% of French people think in particular that the captain of the national team, Amandine Henry, is a star chef. The spot promotes a dynamic and colorful image of women, not on values but on their performance, both in their imaginary professions and in the field.
Advertising does not try to persuade spectators that women are on an equal footing with men, it provokes, it launches a challenge, it installs sportswomen as actresses and no longer as passive spectators, "victims" of a media-sports society. conjugated in the masculine. The media affirms sport, sportswomen and this is its very essence.
