‘You’ve gotta see this’: How this viral ad used AI trickery to prove a point about women’s football

Key Points

• A French ad has gone viral for using visual effects to promote women's football and female athletes.
• The ad features exciting clips showing male players' talent, but later reveals the clips are from women's games.
• The ad aims to challenge perceptions about men's football being "better" or "more interesting" than women's.

This week, as the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup kicked off in Australia and New Zealand, an advertisement went viral for using clever editing to illustrate perceptions of women's sport and athletic abilities.
La Compil des Bleues (The Blues Compilation), released by French telecom company Orange, celebrates the country's best footballers – with a twist.
The first half of the video appears to show exciting football moments during games featuring the French men's team, Les Bleus.
The clips showcase passionate commentary and cheering crowds, along with diving headers and curling free kicks from superstars including Kylian Mbappé and Antoine Griezmann.
"Only Les Bleus can give us these emotions. But that's not them you've just seen," a message on the screen reads.
The ad then rewinds, revealing footage was actually taken from games played by the women's team, Les Bleues.
The second half of the video shows how visual effects were used to disguise impressive moves from female players, including Sakina Karchaoui and Selma Bacha, to appear as though they were performed by Mbappé and Griezmann.
It was made by advertising firm Publicis Groupe using its artificial intellgience (AI) tool Marcel.
The ad closes with a message of support for the women's team.
"At Orange, when we support Les Bleus [France's men's team], we support Les Bleues [the women's team]."

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What is the viral football ad's aim?

The advertisement is about more than showcasing visual effects and editing.
An Orange spokesperson told CNN the ad aims to challenge prejudice against women's sports and perceptions that female athletes are not as skilful as their male counterparts.
“For the majority of soccer fans (and that’s the problem), the general consensus is that men’s soccer is better, faster, more interesting than women’s," the spokesperson said.
An advertisement by French telecom company Orange has aimed to challenge perceptions about women's football. Source: Supplied / Orange"It was essential that during the first half of the video, viewers would think they were enjoying male actions and the only way to make believe that was to … reshape women into men!”
Former Socceroos captain Craig Foster applauded the ad and shared it on Twitter.
"You’ve gotta see this. In full," he wrote.
"Football is football. Sport is sport. End of story. Get into sport played by women, and the phenomenal athletes in the @FIFAWWF."
"Absolutely bamboozled me. Great ad," one fan wrote on Reddit, while a Twitter user describes it as "the French commercial that blew our minds".
Female footballers are paid less, promoted less, and receive less public interest than their male counterparts.
The 2023 World Cup could help change that, with the opening games in Sydney and Auckland attracting crowds of 75,784 and 42,137 respectively.
The Auckland crowd set a new record for an international football match in New Zealand, while the Sydney crowd was the largest-ever attendance for a women’s football match in Australia.
Les Bleues will play their first game at the World Cup on 23 July against Jamaica in Sydney.
-Additional reporting by Reuters