WNBA stars cheer for businesswomen, the ultimate players, in Deloitte’s new ads

Deloitte is rolling out a new ad campaign around its sponsorship of the WNBA, as it also unveils new research suggesting that playing competitive sports often helps set women up to have successful careers.

Four spots, breaking Tuesday during the WNBA playoffs, were created by the agency Maximum Effort and feature WNBA players Diana Taurasi, Sydney Colson, Sylvia Fowles and Theresa Plaisance. The campaign imagines a world where women in business are treated like the biggest stars in basketball—with the WNBA players cheering for them, rather than the other way around.

Two spots have a fantasy-sports theme, with Taurasi, Colson and Fowles drafting businesswomen as though they were sports stars:

The other two spots take place in an office setting, with Taurasi, Colson, Fowles and Plaisance fan-girling over successful women at work. (The businesswomen are fictional and are played by actors.)

Deloitte, a WNBA sponsor since 2020, is also a WNBA Changemaker, helping the league with business transformation. Along with the new ads, the company has released a new report, “Impact of Sports on Women’s Professional Success,” revealed that women who played competitive sports in their youth are more likely to end up in leadership or management roles.

“As we embark on the playoffs after a milestone season for the WNBA, it’s a perfect time to highlight the importance of supporting women in sports and business at all levels,” WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said in a statement. “As someone who played sports as a young girl through college, I hope these efforts continue to inspire young girls and women to keep following their dreams in whatever career they aspire to.”

“As a girl dad, co-chair of a Welsh women’s football team, and producer of a WNBA TV show, I want to help create a great professional environment for women. Sports is transformative and fun for both women and men, whether a career in sports is the goal or not,” said Ryan Reynolds, co-founder of Maximum Effort, said in a statement. “I am grateful to Deloitte and the hilarious WNBA stars for collaborating with Maximum Effort to create this campaign.”