Serena Williams Brings Focus to Women in Super Bowl Commercial

This year’s Super Bowl features big brands starring female leads in their commercials, including one of the most buzzed-about: an ad for Bumble — a dating and networking app where women make the first move. What’s special about this commercial is that it stars tennis superstar Serena Williams.

The commercial’s title, “The Ball is in Her Court,” was one of the first slogans for Bumble when it launched four years ago with an an all-female team led by Whitney Wolfe Herd.

“We are so, so proud to be in this together,” Herd said on “Good Morning America” of Bumble’s partnership with Williams. “We are going into the Super Bowl, a moment that really, really emphasizes celebrating men and we are here to say that we are here as well.”

The Super Bowl commercial was created and directed by an all-female team too.

“That was really important to us, especially that we are airing this during the Super Bowl, something that is celebrated more for men,” Williams, 37, said on “GMA.” “Why not make a huge statement, and not only in front of the camera but also behind the camera, which is so important to have that support behind the camera as well.”

The ad focuses not just on Williams as a tennis legend, but Williams as a woman.

“This is a different kind of Serena that we’re showing,” said Alex Williamson, Bumble’s chief brand officer. “We’re a relationship app so we’re not only talking about how strong she is professionally, in her sport, but also as a woman, as a mom, as a wife, as a friend.”

Williams has been outspoken her entire career, but particularly in the past year she has become a powerful voice for women’s equality, fighting for everything from equal pay to the right to wear what she wants to protections for working moms.

“We’re taught as a society that we have to wait and be second, but that’s not true,” Williams said. “We can be first. I love being first. I only like being first.”

The Super Bowl ad, which will air in the first quarter of the Rams versus Patriots game, carries a message of empowerment for women “in everything that they’re doing and how they’re going after their lives,” according to Williamson. Bumble hopes the ad also makes women think about the times they’ve “been told no, or to wait, or to be polite, or that it’s not their turn,” and urges them not to allow themselves to be held back or limited.

“It really talks about women embracing making the first move, whether it’s on a date, in terms of let’s go out on a first date, or making friends or just going in a business room and saying, ‘Listen, I want an opportunity to have an interview for this job,” Serena Williams said. “There’s nothing wrong with doing that.”

Williams’ Super Bowl ad is the kickoff to her partnership with Bumble on their global “Make the First Move” campaign. She will serve as a Global Advisor to Bumble to “reinforce the brand’s mission to end misogyny and empower women around the world,” according to company officials.