Invoice Maher blasted Nike’s new Tremendous Bowl 2025 industrial that includes iconic feminine athletes like Sha’Carri Richardson and Caitlin Clark as deceiving viewers with a so-called “zombie lie” concerning the patriarchy.
The brand new black-and-white advert, “So Win,” incorporates a vaunted roster of feminine athletes, together with WNBA stars Clark, Sabrina Ionescu and A’ja Wilson, in addition to Olympic runner Richardson and gymnast Jordan Chiles.
In the course of the minute-long clip, musician Doechii narrates myriad doubts and fears coursing by feminine athletes’ minds — they’ll’t be “demanding,” “relentless” or “put yourself first” — earlier than stressing how they need to show critics mistaken as Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love” blares within the background.
“What you do, you can’t win — so win,” the narration stated, with footage of the athletes in motion.
However the black-and-white advert, the sports activities attire behemoth’s first to air throughout a Tremendous Bowl since 1998, got here below fireplace from Maher and his company Friday evening on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher.”
The comic slammed the advert as being a “zombie lie,” which he defined as an idea that was as soon as true and now not is, however individuals nonetheless hold saying it.
“I feel like this is a giant zombie lie,” he stated.
“When was the last time a woman was told: ‘You can’t do this, you can’t be confident’?’” he continued. “Who are these imaginary mean old men of the patriarchy?”
Maher linked the advert to issues plaguing the Democratic Social gathering and the way it views its voters, explaining that People are “not that savvy about politics, but they know when you’re lying.”
Author Pamela Paul, in the meantime, stated on the present that the advert’s messaging was “dishonest” and “’weird and defensive.”
“Most of the messages you hear out there are ‘girl power,’ “you go girl,’” she stated.
Fellow visitor, former Ohio Democratic US Rep. Tim Ryan, shared the pair’s sentiment, insisting that “the world has moved beyond a lot of this stuff.”
Nike didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
