Bill Maher blasted Nike’s new Super Bowl 2025 commercial featuring iconic female athletes like Sha’Carri Richardson and Caitlin Clark as deceiving viewers with a so-called “zombie lie” about the patriarchy.
The new black-and-white ad, “So Win,” features a vaunted roster of female athletes, including WNBA stars Clark, Sabrina Ionescu and A’ja Wilson, as well as Olympic runner Richardson and gymnast Jordan Chiles.
During the minute-long clip, musician Doechii narrates myriad doubts and fears coursing through female athletes’ minds — they can’t be “demanding,” “relentless” or “put yourself first” — before stressing how they should prove critics wrong as Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love” blares in the background.
“What you do, you can’t win — so win,” the narration said, with footage of the athletes in action.
But the black-and-white ad, the sports apparel behemoth’s first to air during a Super Bowl since 1998, came under fire from Maher and his guests Friday night on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher.”
The comedian slammed the ad as being a “zombie lie,” which he explained as a concept that was once true and no longer is, but people still keep saying it.
“I feel like this is a giant zombie lie,” he said.
“When was the last time a woman was told: ‘You can’t do this, you can’t be confident’?’” he continued. “Who are these imaginary mean old men of the patriarchy?”
Maher linked the ad to problems plaguing the Democratic Party and how it views its voters, explaining that Americans are “not that savvy about politics, but they know when you’re lying.”
Writer Pamela Paul, meanwhile, said on the show that the ad’s messaging was “dishonest” and “’weird and defensive.”
“Most of the messages you hear out there are ‘girl power,’ “you go girl,’” she said.
Fellow guest, former Ohio Democratic US Rep. Tim Ryan, shared the pair’s sentiment, insisting that “the world has moved beyond a lot of this stuff.”
Nike did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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