Corona held a 900-minute women’s soccer match to highlight the sport’s 10x gender pay gap

Corona and We Believers found a cleverly exhausting way to highlight the pay gap in Mexico between men’s and women’s professional soccer players. The brand and agency organized a 900-minute women’s exhibition match, to point out that women have to play 10 times as long as men to make the same amount of money. The match took place in the Estadio Cuauhtémoc in Puebla City, the fourth-biggest football stadium in Mexico. It took a staggering 15 hours to complete. Some 280 players were available for the game, so the coaches could make as many substitutions as needed to avoid injuries. Airing the entire 15-hour game wasn’t feasible, but Fox Sports and TV Azteca streamed updates on TV and online every hour. Corona is the main sponsor of women’s soccer in Mexico, supporting several clubs in the local league and the national team as well. “But only one big brand is insufficient to help the clubs have enough funds to pay equally,” said We Believers co-founder Gustavo Lauria. “The goal here is not to point fingers at anyone but to encourage all the other brands in the country to follow Corona’s example when it comes to investing in women's soccer.” Lauria said 90% of the production team behind the camera were women, as were all the key executives on the client side. He added that the brand set a record for e-commerce sales through TaDa—AB InBev’s first global, direct-to-consumer digital platform. All proceeds were donated to women's soccer organizations. The campaign follows another recent soccer-focused effort from the agency and brand in Mexico—a prison soccer league, where one player actually signed a pro contract.

Corona held a 900-minute women’s soccer match to highlight the sport’s 10x gender pay gap

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