In 1941, women's soccer was banned in Brazil. By law, women were forbidden to play football for 40 years. But their passion for the sport was greater. And they continued to play, even in secret. They played at night, often dressing up as men to avoid the police. A story without records, without images.

Despite the progress made in women's sport, major challenges remain, particularly in terms of equal pay, media coverage and visibility. Particularly in Brazil, which has always been recognized globally as the " country of soccer ", it has never provided the same conditions locally for women to play the game.

In Brazil, women were banned from playing the sport for 40 years by the government because it was considered "too violent for ladies," which meant that women were not allowed to have an official national team until 1983. While the men's national team won their third World Cup in the 1970s, women who wanted to play soccer had to run from the police.

The FIFA Women's World Cup 2023 in Australia has brought women's soccer to the forefront of global and media attention, and the gender gap in the sport has become an issue to be addressed. As the largest bank in Latin America and the official sponsor of the Brazilian women's soccer team, Itaú wanted to make a positive impact on the gender gap in Brazil by giving the women's team and the competition maximum visibility in the country.

*It's important to note that this piece work was aired in 2023/Aug in the early stage of generative AI.

Situation

During the FIFA Women's World Cup 2023, Itaú Bank, as the official sponsor of Brazilian women's national team, aimed to raise the visibility of the squad and the competition in the country. With women banned from playing soccer in Brazil for more than 40 years between 1940 and 1982, women's sport has had a historical gap in representation and memory that has impacted the disparity in media investment and brand sponsorship to date.

Brief

To position Itaú Bank as the main brand in the financial segment that supports women's soccer, communicating a message that both highlighted the history of women's struggle and resistance in soccer in Brazil.

Objectives

To create brand awareness and a relevant impact on gender inequality in sport, to raise the visibility of the women's national team and the competition in Brazil, and to drive the conversation on the issue beyond soccer in a meaningful way.

Global events like the FIFA World Cup have a huge audience of people who follow the sport.

However, in Brazil, this audience has always followed men's soccer, with research showing that only 2.7% of media broadcasts are for women's teams (Unisinos, 2019). The campaign's audience strategy was to generate massive awareness to try to bridge the gender gap in coverage by expanding the audience between two main groups: the first group was the soccer fan base and match audience, who have always followed the men's matches, to show the story that has never been told about women in soccer; and the second group was the other Brazilians who are not soccer fans but would follow the competition in the media.

We asked players from that era to describe what those teams were like during the prohibition years and transformed their stories into AI prompts.

We combined real testimonials with technical photography setups, using data from the years when Brazil won the men's World Cup and women were not allowed to play. Creating realistic portrayals of winning female squads, which could have happened if not for existing prejudices.

The Imaginary Squads were shown on TV, sparking a nationwide discussion on gender equality in sports.

For the first time, a brand used AI to combine real testimonials with historical photographic data to come up with a powerful story, capable of provoking reflection and changing behavior.

We asked players from that era and their relatives to describe what those teams were like during the prohibition years. The testimonials also got the endorsement of Aira Bonfim, a historian specialized in the study of counter-hegemonic sports practices.

Then, we merge this information with photographic data (from the years when only men were allowed to play in Brazil) to create a realistic images of imaginary teams.

The Imaginary Squads were shown on TV, sparking a nationwide discussion on gender equality in sports.

The project generated 720MM organic impressions and more than 2MM interactions, reaching the top spots in the Brazilian Trending Topics.

For the first time, the CBF has commented on the years of prohibition and committed to a record investment in women's soccer.

These images are now part of the National Soccer Museum, recognized as an official piece of soccer history.

Right after the project Pretinha, who was featured in Imaginary Squads, made history as the first woman to have her footprints immortalized on Maracana's Walk of Fame.

The results were so positive that the Itaú brand generated earned media on major Brazilian TV channels, as well as appearances in more than 40 relevant press publications, including 15 international portals and global innovation and trend platforms such as WGSN and Trend-Watching.