On his HBO show Real Time with Bill Maher, Bill Maher has a reputation for being an equal opportunity offender, and on Friday night, he criticized Nike’s Super Bowl commercial that featured Caitlin Clark and other women sports stars. “Did you see the Nike commercial that they ran with all the women athletes?” Maher asked, before showing a clip from the black-and-white ad titled, “So Win.”
For those who missed it during Super Bowl LIX, the commercial conveyed a clear message:
There’s one guarantee in sport. You’ll be told you can’t do it. So do it anyway.
You can’t win. So Win.
🎤@officialdoechii pic.twitter.com/Fcu9VXQbnA
— Nike (@Nike) February 10, 2025
Maher described the ad as a “giant zombie lie,” referring to a belief that was once true but has since changed while still being perpetuated. He argued, “If the Democrats are ever going to win again, they have to understand something about the American people: they may not be politically savvy, but they can tell when someone is lying. When was the last time a woman was told, ‘You can’t do this, you can’t be confident’? Who are these imaginary mean old men of the patriarchy?”
Another guest, Pamela Paul, a columnist with The New York Times, concurred with Maher, stating that the commercial missed its mark. “Most of the messages you hear out there are ‘girl power,’ ‘you go girl,’” Paul commented. “These messages encouraging young women are so ubiquitous that they start to seem not only dishonest but also weird and defensive. Why does it help girls and women to think of themselves as uniquely embattled and vulnerable?”
Bill Maher slams Nike Super Bowl ad for floating ‘zombie lie’ about the ‘patriarchy’ https://t.co/ed9pp9WfNP pic.twitter.com/i4XIwg8sq9
— New York Post (@nypost) February 15, 2025
The commercial also featured Olympic sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson, gymnast Jordan Chiles, and WNBA stars Sabrina Ionescu and A’ja Wilson, marking Nike’s first Super Bowl ad since 1998. While Maher wasn’t impressed, the ad garnered strong reviews from others; Michael Grant from Awful Announcing even declared it the best commercial of Super Bowl LIX, saying, “We’ll be talking about this commercial for years.”
