Nike's Indian Power Female Ad

By Gwyneth Allred
Nike is known widely known for their slogan “Just do it” which embodies the power and motivation it takes to push yourself to become your physical best. Nike recently released their first ad in India and it is, for the lack of a better word, kick ass. The ad is about the incredible ladies who are playing all kinds of sports, and playing to win, over in India.

Nike’s ad “Da Da Ding” shows players working intensely at their passions and the success that comes from all of that hard work. The ad includes soccer player Jyoti Ann Burrett and cricketers Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandana and Shubhlakshmi Sharma, among others, pushing themselves in workouts and killing it in all kinds of settings and circumstances throughout India.

Nike didn’t only create a killer ad campaign. Their website tells the stories of other athletes, illustrating their lives and perseverance. This includes field hockey player Rani Rampal.

Rani Rampal was the youngest player in history on the national team, starting at the age of 15 in 2010. She discusses her career, saying, “Every time I won a medal I kept getting stronger and more confident to take on the world.” (http://news.nike.com/news/da-da-ding)

YES! We need women like this to continue to come forward and empower other women and girls. In the last few decades women’s rights in India has been on the rise, with equality written in their constitution, rates of education rising, sports also rising, and women filling very high spots in government. But there’s still a lot of violence, inequality, and unreasonable pressures that women are facing.

“Da Da Ding” is targeting the rising generation of young girls in India to build up their confidence and help in the breakdown of conventions still existing in the country. And some of these conventions still exist in ours, especially in women’s sports.

This year alone the movement for equal pay has been promoted time and time again, including in the Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly (ESPY) Award when every single woman who won an award addressed this issue in her acceptance speech.

​Equality is the ultimate goal, and it is awesome to see Nike standing with women and empowering ladies all over the globe.