On the day before the Women’s World Cup final, print-edition readers of the Vancouver Sun must have been perplexed when they finished their morning sports section.
A giant, color picture of a celebrating USA star, Alex Morgan, filled the back page of the section. Across the bottom were three words made famous by Oakland Raiders founder and owner Al Davis: “Just Win Baby.”
Beneath that was the Raiders logo.
This is random...A full page ad supporting #USWNT in today's Vancouver Sun bought by the...Oakland Raiders? pic.twitter.com/Q8twABGgsK
— Les Carpenter (@Lescarpenter) July 4, 2015
Even with the US in the final here it seemed a very random thing. NFL teams do not usually buy ads in foreign newspapers celebrating women’s soccer teams.
‘We want to be supportive. That’s really it,” Raiders spokesman Will Kiss told the Guardian on Saturday.
A few weeks ago, the Raiders took out ads in the San Francisco Chronicle and Oakland Tribune offering similar support for their stadium neighbors, the Golden State Warriors, who were playing in and eventually won the NBA Finals.
Kiss said the Warriors ads got good response in the San Francisco Bay area. Sunday’s ad was a bit more of a stretch, going into Canada.
Kiss said he was not aware of a connection to the fact the ad ran on 4 July, which would have been Davis’s 86th birthday, or if Morgan was chosen to be featured because she played soccer at the nearby University of California.
