Not so enjoyable truth: The three prime mascots within the NBA—Rocky the Mountain Lion, Harry the Hawk and Benny the Bull—every pull in significantly extra money yearly than Jackie Younger, the highest-paid participant within the WNBA.
With this statistic in thoughts, an advocacy group has created its personal mascot referred to as Ally Hoop, coinciding with the WNBA’s debut in Canada. The animated character, developed by Toronto artistic company Exhausting Work Membership and 1stAveMachine, goals to name consideration to an outsized wage hole and lift cash by way of a branded merchandise line.
Utilizing the no-nonsense tagline, “Ally Hoop: The Equal Pay Mascot,” the marketing campaign comes from Quick and Feminine, a charity based in 2005 by Olympic gold medalist Chandra Crawford. The group’s mission is to empower 8- to 14-year-old women by way of sports activities and bodily exercise.
Ally Hoop, the character, is described as “an ally for attaining web web equality in sport—she’s right here to hype the sport, like solely a mascot can, and shut the hole.” To not be outdone by her human counterparts, Ally shimmies, stomps and twerks her means by way of a game-day dance routine in a video asserting this system.
The sunshine-touch strategy was intentional, per Meghan Kraemer, co-founder and government artistic director at Exhausting Work Membership.
“Campaigns round equality are sometimes sports activities montages handled with an earnest tone that detractors merely tune out,” Kraemer mentioned. “We noticed a chance to come back on the difficulty otherwise, with a way of enjoyable that disarms the ‘haters’ within the remark sections of feminine athletes’ feeds.”
It could be an “unconventional means” to seize eyeballs, in response to Gabriela Estrada, government director of Quick and Feminine, however “a mascot’s position is to hype followers, so why not hype them as much as be extra engaged in pushing for pay fairness?”
Ally Hoop T-shirts and different swag are on sale on the Quick and Feminine web site, with proceeds going towards the trigger.
The marketing campaign will unfold out throughout digital out of doors advertisements, in-restaurant posters and social media forward of the first-ever WNBA recreation performed in Canada on the Scotiabank Area this Saturday.
