Coca-Cola Puts Powerful Messages on Pitches Celebrating the Changing Narrative of Women in Football

With the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 moving to a nail-biting conclusion and set to become the biggest female sporting event in history, Coca-Cola has unveiled an innovative campaign to build on the legacy of the tournament and celebrate the changing narrative occurring in women’s football. In football fields across both co-host nations, Australia and New Zealand, Coca-Cola has displayed and activated six powerful statements showing the progress being made.

Each statement takes a common misconception around women in football found today in online conversation and contrasts it with the powerful – and more positive – reality of today’s game.

Two messages in fields located in Australia and New Zealand share the inspiring stories of Team Coca-Cola players Ellie Carpenter and Katie Bowen. Ellie’s story is one of defying the odds and breaking through barriers to achieve greatness in sport, while Katie emphasises the power of believing in magic, highlighting the remarkable milestone of participating in her fourth FIFA Women’s World Cup.

The remaining messages celebrate the growing participation in women’s football around the world, the unprecedented growth of the game, the role models the game has created and the record-breaking number of viewers that the tournament has achieved this year.

The campaign also features a stunning video created with drones to showcase the state-of-the-art technology used to create the messages on the field. Using a gentle stream of air, each blade of grass is bent to create a shadow effect on the pitches that appears for up to 48 hours, without damaging the turf.

Kate Miller, marketing director at Coca-Cola Australia says, “Coca-Cola has been supporting the FIFA Women's World Cup since the inaugural tournament in 1991 and we are really proud to celebrate the success of this year’s tournament, which is not only breaking records but is also breaking down long-held beliefs in society about women in sports. Our latest campaign challenges the many misconceptions around women’s sports and shows the new positive reality and celebrates the professional athletes who have inspired us all.”

Building on its legacy of supporting the FIFA Women’s World Cup™ and coinciding with the final matches this week, The Coca-Cola Company is hosting a one-day "Level the Playing Field" diversity, equity, and inclusion summit in Sydney on Friday 18 August, featuring influential business and societal changemakers.

The global campaign was developed in partnership with WPP Open X/AKQA and Ogilvy PR.