The WTA today unveiled a new ad campaign with the tagline "Strong is Beautiful," featuring 38 current and up-and-coming stars. The campaign includes TV, print and digital ads, along with social media efforts, and will appear in 80 markets over the next two years (
WTA). WTA CEO Stacey Allaster said that the campaign is "aimed to convert 'peripheral fans' who watch only a couple of major tournaments into diehards who follow the entire women’s tennis tour." In N.Y., Andrew Adam Newman reports one of the new spots opens with a "slow-motion film of top players hitting ground strokes while wearing billowy dresses and scarves." A voiceover says, "What are little girls made of? They’re made of sugar and spice." Then Caroline Wozniacki, wearing a black dress with spaghetti straps, hits an overhead smash, and adds, "And sweat. And fury. And grit. And strength. That’s what little girls are made of.” The "film, and photographs for print ads, are by the filmmaker and photographer Dewey Nicks." Other "slow-motion spots focus on individual players," like Ana Ivanovic, who in a 30-second ad "hits a single forehand while an off-screen fan blows back her long hair and a shawl." She says in Serbian with English subtitles, "During the war in Serbia, they bombed us all day and all night. But if I got up early enough, I could practice before the planes came.” In another spot, Chinese tennis player Na Li says, "China is a country of 1.3 billion people. Yet we’ve never had a No. 1 player or Grand Slam champion. No pressure.” Goodby, Silverstein & Partners' Stefan Copiz, the Creative Dir for the campaign, said, "The duality we picked up on in women’s tennis is on the one hand they are tremendous athletes who have tremendous strength and power. But on the other hand they do it with such grace -- the grace of ballerinas -- and such beauty.” Allaster "declined to reveal how much the new campaign cost to produce." The WTA "will make the campaign available to individual tournament organizers in 33 countries, who then will decide whether to pay to place the ads" (
N.Y. TIMES, 5/12).
