“Forget Me” was a message of empowerment, wrapped in a sports retirement campaign. Knowing the focus would be on Abby’s legacy, we wanted to give the people what they wanted, but not what they expected. Instead of aggregating all of Abby’s social mentions, we deleted her accounts. Instead of OOH that highlighted her accomplishments, we used pictures of high school soccer players. Instead of a film celebrating her career, we spoke to the next generation. We created a campaign that completely embraced the idea of “Forget Me” from concept through execution. Not only strengthening Gatorade’s Win From Within belief, but helping cement the legacy that Abby worked so hard to create.

As Abby’s fans prepared for her final match, they awoke to a cryptic message on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter from their hero reading, “Make them forget me.” After a short period of confusion, Abby then did something completely unheard of, she deleted all of her social media accounts. This sent her fans and the rest of the sports world searching for answers. In response, we launched our film and subsequent print executions, which depicted Abby cleaning out her locker for the final time. She explained the meaning of “Forget Me” and urged the next generation to accomplish even greater things. It was the first sports retirement campaign for a female athlete and yet, it wasn’t even about her. By asking the world to forget her, we were able to create a legacy for Abby that reflected what she was during her career: a proponent for change.

The campaign received over 283 million impressions and was picked up by 238 publications in just two days. The print ran in Sports Illustrated, as well as several major newspaper publications, including USA Today and The New York Times. The social media shutdown caused mentions of Abby Wambach to increase over 1,300%. Resulting in such a strong social conversation that we were able to get #AbbyWambach to trend on Twitter without her even having an account.