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#FromtheArchives: Marketing Sue Bird

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#FromtheArchives: Marketing Sue Bird

"She's like the anti-Britney Spears."

Lindsay Gibbs
Sep 7, 2022
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#FromtheArchives: Marketing Sue Bird

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Hi, friends. How is everyone doing? I, personally, am emotionally exhausted after a week that’s involved saying goodbye to two absolute legends of women’s sports who both burst on the national stage in 1998 and dominated their fields for almost 25 years.

I’ve got Serena thoughts in the works, I promise, but last night when the Seattle Storm lost to the Las Vegas Aces in game four of the WNBA semifinals, and Sue Bird stepped off a basketball court for the last time as a player, I started perusing early newspaper coverage of her career, and found a piece that is, well … a lot. So I thought I’d share immediately.

But first, take a break to cry by watching Sue’s final on-court interview:

Twitter avatar for @SportsCenter
SportsCenter @SportsCenter
"THANK YOU SUE!" Sue Bird's final sendoff ❤️
4:36 AM ∙ Sep 7, 2022
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Are you a blubbering mess? Perfect. Let’s go.

The Hartford Courant; July 16, 2002: “WNBA Puts Fresh Face Forward”

Sue Bird’s professional accomplishments are exhausting even just to type. In her 20-season WNBA career, she was a four-time WNBA champion, a 13-time WNBA All-Star, a five-time member of the All-WNBA first team, a three-time member of the All-WNBA second team, a three-time WNBA assists leader, a five-time Russian national League champion, a five-time EuroLeague champion, a five-time Olympic gold medalist on Team USA, and a four-time world championship gold medalist (and one-time world championship bronze medalist). She’s first all-time in WNBA games played, assists, minutes played, All-Star appearances, and I’m sure she’s leading other categories that I completely forgot to check.

Her career exceeded all expectations, which is REALLY SAYING SOMETHING because she did not come into the league under the radar.

Bird was the No. 1 overall draft pick by the Seattle Storm in 2002. At the time, she was coming off of a UConn career that included two national championships, in 2000 and 2002. In 2002, UConn went undefeated and Bird swept awards season, taking the Naismith Award, the Wade Trophy, and being named the USBWA Women’s National Player of the Year award and the AP Player of the Year.

She came into the WNBA at a time when the league was struggling for an identity. And executives at all levels of women’s basketball were drooling at the thought of a player who could help the league piggyback off of UConn’s mainstream success.

Oh, and crucially? She was white, petite for a basketball player, and presented as — or at least was styled to be — very feminine and heterosexual.

Reading this profile from the Hartford Courant in June 2002, about a month into her WNBA career, is quite unsettling both as a stark reminder of how fucking awful the media was to women in general in the early aughts, and at how desperate the WNBA and sports marketers were to find a white WNBA player who men would be attracted to, but who could still fit the “role model” criteria necessary in women’s sports.

There’s “saying the quiet part out loud,” and then there’s whatever is happening in this article.

' r Seattle Storm J COURTESY OF THE WNBA SIGNED WITH TWO AGENTS, Sue Bird has proved to be very marketable, signing a multiyear deal with Nike and being featured in the WNBA's "This Is Who I Am" ads. WNBA Puts Fresh Face Forward Bird, Ex-Huskies Are Ready-Made Stars ByLORI RILEY COURANT STAFF WRITER WNBA coaches coveted Sue Bird, Tamika Williams, Asjha Jones and Swin Cash for their skills on the basketball court But when the former UConn players were drafted, each of their teams got a bonus a marketable commodity. The UConn players were fresh offa 39-0 national championship season that had captured the casual sports fans' interest. Even people who weren't women's basketball fans knew who Sue Bird was. And the players already know the drilL The media interest, the appearances, the photo shoots they have dealt with it all before. Some of the original WNBA stars Sheryl Swoopes and Lisa Leslie are still around. But the league needs new bjood, and UConn helped provide it I "The best thing for us is that college is ajready creating ready-made stars for us -l with UConn at the forefront" said TJraci Cook, the senior director of WNBA corporate communications. "Sue already has a base on which we can build." At the moment Bird is the most marketable of the four rookies from UConn, She is the most recognizable. She was the point guard on the top college team in the country. She won every college award. She was the WNBA's No. 1 draft pick. She is articulate with fresh-faced, girl-next-door appeal She went to Seattle and immediately took over as the Storm's starting point guard. She has not one, but two agents The Firm in Los Angeles and Management One in Cincinnati "Her marketability blew us all away," said Constance Schwartz, the vice president of strategic marketing with The Firm. "She's like the anti-Britney Spears. She's cool but credible. She goes out and plays her hardest but she's a team player and that comes off in every interview. She's a beautiful person, and that definitely helps. "One of the strongest qualities about Sue is that she transcends her audience young girls like her, young boys, all races. I told a friend of mine who lives in Manhattan about her and he was like, 'She's so hot' He went on and on about her." Her agents say there may be a market for Bird outside of basketball They have secured her a multiyear deal with Nike, not just selling shoes or basketball clothing, but what Schwartz called "lifestyle clothing." "Lifestyle marketing that's where she sets herself apart from other athletes," Schwartz said. "We want them to help build Sue Bird as a brand with shoes and appareL" Schwartz said the specifics of the deal are still in the works, as are other potential deals involving cosmetics, cars, sports drinks and alcoholic beverages. The agents are walking a fine line. They want to capitalize on UConn's 39-0 season and the ensuing hoopla while people still remember it but they don't She's like the anti-Britney Spears . She's cool but credible. She goes out and plays her hardest, but she's a team player. Constance Schwartz The Firm vice president of strategic marketing on Sue Bird want to overwhelm Bird, who began her rookie season with Seattle May 30. "That's why you don't see us out there doing 8,000 things right now," Schwartz said. "Look at what just happened. They won the Final Four. They went 39-0. They were visiting the White House. Let her play. Let her enjoy her rookie year. We just didn't want to come out with guns blazing." The WNBA and the Storm are doing what they can in a short time; nobody was even sure if coach Lin Dunn was going to pick Bird and not trade her, until the week of the draft. The WNBA has had her prominently featured on its website. In Seattle, a Sue Bird Bobblehead Night already had been planned before the season began. The Storm, like the WNBA, targets the majority of its marketing toward women and families, but has decided to use a slightly different approach with Bird. "An audience we have not spent a lot of resources on is men," said Karen Bryant vice president of Storm operations. "Sue Bird, with her success and recognition, she's captured the attention of the male sports fan in a way we haven't seen before, and we'd be remiss if we didn't capitalize on that" To that end, the WNBA also has tried to appeal to a broader audience, helping book Bird on the "Best Damn Sports Show, Period," last month. The hosts gushed about how beautiful she was as Bird appeared uncomfortable. This, of course, is all part of her appeal Bird also has been featured in a league promo called "This Is Who I Am." In a picture from one of the ads, Comets forward Swoopes appears on the league website wearing an oversized cowboy hat and a plaid sports bra. The TV ads feature players dressed casually (in sports bras, midriff-bearing tops), talking about their off-court interests. The short takes are interspersed with game footage. Cook said they are intended for the fans to get to know the players as people, rather than simply basketball players. "Our fans want to connect with our players on every level," Cook said. "What they look like off-court, their hobbies, their interests. Women's fans want to feel closer. They want to see their style off-court" The way the players are dressed makes it appear the WNBA was borrowing a little marketing strategy from the Women's Tennis Association, but any sexual overtones were unintended, Cook said. "It wasn't the intent" Cook said. "This is how they dress. And Sheryl has her own style." Both the league and the Storm realize they can run a many promotions as they like, but it's up to Bird and the others to perform on the court A few years ago, former Tennessee star Chamique Holdsclaw came into the league with similar hype (the female Jordan who would save the league), but her team, the Mystics, did poorly, she arrived in training camp out of shape the following year, and her star subsequently faded. "All the stuff off the court is icing on the cake," Bryant said. "Nothing will speak more loudly than what Bird does as a member of the team on the court And obviously, expectations are high.

I could honestly annotate the whole article, but that seems complicated so let’s just hone in on a few beats:

  • “She is articulate with fresh-faced, girl-next-door appeal.” (That’s a long-winded way of saying “white.”)

  • This entire quote, from Constance Schwartz, the vice president of strategic marketing with The Firm, is just so, so very 2002, particularly the completely unnecessary pitting of women against each other, just because. But seriously — this is a quote a marketing executive was willing to give ON THE RECORD. What was/is being said behind closed doors? :

    • “She’s like the anti-Brittney [Spears]. She’s cool but credible. She goes out and plays her hardest, but she’s a team player and that comes off in every interview. She’s a beautiful person, and that definitely helps. One of the strongest qualities about Sue is that she transcends her audience — young girls like her, young boys, all races. I told a friend of mine who lives in Manhattan [about her] and he was like, ‘She’s so hot.’ He went on and on about her.”

    (I bolded the part that gave me the most ick — you know, the fact that her “strongest quality” is that this guy’s friend found her hot — but it’s all way, way up there on the ick scale.)

  • I audibly laughed at this line: “They have secured her a multiyear deal with Nike, not just selling shoes or basketball clothing, but what Schwartz called, ‘lifestyle clothing.’”

    Look, while Bird undoubtedly got more marketing and sponsorship opportunities than most/all of her Black teammates, I think it’s safe to say that if turning Bird into a full-on lifestyle brand with shoes and merch was Nike’s plan in 2002, the follow-through in that arena wasn’t the best, unless I missed all the Sue Bird signature shoes in the mid 2000s.

  • Finally, I was incredibly disturbed by this entire anecdote:


    “To that end, the WNBA also has tried to appeal to a broader audience, helping book Bird on the ‘Best Damn Sports Show, Period,’ hast month. The hosts gushed about how beautiful she was as Bird appeared uncomfortable. This, of course, is all part of her appeal.”

    Ah the sweet spot for a woman: We’re going to force you to be objectified, but you better not enjoy it, that would take away the fun.

Overall, this just made me sad. It made me sad for all the Black and queer players over the WNBA’s 26 years that have been overlooked and discarded for not fitting into a mold, and it makes me sad for Bird that she had to be forced to be this emblem of femininity and heterosexuality that she so obviously wasn’t comfortable with, because it wasn’t her true self. (Despite the “This is Who I Am” slogan.)

It makes me realize how far we’ve come over the past 20 years, and how much fucking further we have to go because of how many years were wasted trying to fit into mainstream molds that were created explicitly to exclude powerful athletes in women’s sports.

Finally, it makes me happy that Bird has received arguably the most mainstream attention in her professional career in the last five years, since coming out and sharing her relationship with Megan Rapinoe with the world. Trust me: Between being heralded as the WNBA’s Straight White Savior in 2002 to her status today as half of a high-profile and heavily-sponsored queer power couple today, there were many years — over a decade, really — where Bird went largely under-the-radar and underappreciated.

I could write a lot more, but we’ll keep exploring these themes in Power Plays going forward. For now, I’ll leave you with the sidebar from the 2002 Hartford Courant feature, which looked at the marketing plans for the other three UConn rookies in the WNBA that year. (Swin Cash was selected second overall, Asjha Jones was selected fourth overall, and Tamika Williams went sixth overall. A decent year for the Huskies, I suppose.)

SUNDAY, JUNE 16,2002 E3 Marketing Majors How the other three rookies from this year's UConn championship team are being marketed in the WNBA: Tamika Williams, Minnesota Not surprisingly, the gregarious Williams, who played in the background behind Kodak Ail-Americans Sue Bird. Swin " Cash and Diana Taurasi at UConn, is wowing 'em in Minneapolis. Initially, the team was going to feature Katie Smith, Svetlana Abrosimova and Betty Lennox (who since has been traded) in ads. But Williams worked her way in and now will be featured in TV and radio ads. 1 Said Chris Wright, senior vice president and chief marketing officer for the Lynx and Timberwolves: "I love her voice. She has a great ; personality and a wonderful 'i vocabulary. We think we struck gold. ' She's got a great, great future." Swin Cash, Detroit Cash, the No. 2 pick in the draft, signed with a JLT marketing firm from Pittsburgh, Cindrich & Co., which usually deals with football and men's basketball players. Cash is their first female player. A Nike deal is in the works, and Cash ' also will appear on posters in schools around the country as part of a nonprofit nutritional program called Healthy Bodies, Hungry Minds. In Detroit, she will be the team spokeswoman for the American Cancer Society, and a marketing campaign is in the works. Said Kristin Bernert, Detroit Shock vice president of operations: "I think everybody envies UConn and the way they've been able to garner interest in women's basketball. We all are trying , to capture some of that Having one of the players here doesn't hurt" Asjha Jones, Washington The Mystics have Chamique Holdsclaw to promote, but rookies Stacey Dales-Schuman and Jones will factor into the team's marketing plans. Said Julie Demeo-Tacinelli, director of the Mystics: "Our promotions will focus on role models, and Asjha's a perfect role model." if '

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#FromtheArchives: Marketing Sue Bird

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