Women’s football is on a rise, with viewership and fan engagement growing and reaching new heights.
With initiatives like Nike’s new vertical swoosh, part of the ‘Together we Rise’ club kit collection that aims to uplift women’s football by making an all-gender collection, brands around the sport are continuously working to improve the women’s game.
The Women’s Super League (WSL) in England has become one of the most popular and competitive leagues in the world, with more fans than ever tuning in to watch their favorite players and clubs.
As the women’s game grows, clubs are looking for new ways to attract even more supporters, particularly from younger demographics.
Ahead of Manchester United Women’s opening WSL match against West Ham tomorrow, the club’s content team took an intriguing approach to boost ticket sales and drum up excitement for the game.
They turned to social media platform of Tik Tok and it’s trendy nature for help, hoping to tap into the platform’s younger demographic.
What followed was a TikTok video featuring a Manchester United Women’s representative using Gen Z slang to appeal to the younger crowd, a trend that has done the rounds on Tik Tok, but the result was far from desired.
The video aims to replicate the trend by using Gen Z for the entire video, and the representative bombards viewers with trendy terms like “rizz,” “slay,” and “no cap.”
While the aim was to connect with Gen Z, it seems the club may have leaned a little too hard into the slang dictionary.
Even as someone who doesn’t truly understand the Gen Z lingo, it was easy to spot a funny mistake the club made, “Old Trafford is the most sigma day out in Manchester” says the video.
For those unfamiliar, “sigma” typically refers to an independent, lone-wolf type of personality—hardly the vibe you’d associate with attending a football match, or a day out in Manchester or anywhere for that matter.
The awkwardness continues when the video shifts to the dressing room, where the representative sits in front of the jerseys of women’s players like Maya Le Tissier. He declares, “Man United Women have endless rizz,” a phrase meant to convey charm or charisma.
However, the comment feels misplaced and unnecessary, failing to highlight anything relevant to the players or their on-field performances, instead coming off as a forced attempt to sound cool.
The TikTok closes with the phrases “serve”, slang used to describe something executed perfectly. While these words might work on social media, they felt like a bizarre conclusion to a video promoting a football match.
Over on Twitter, the reaction has been far from positive. Fans have slammed the video as cringeworthy and out of touch, with many expressing their disbelief that the club thought this was a good idea.
One fan tweeted, “It took some doing, but the club have released an official piece of media that’s the worst thing I have ever seen in my life.” And the tweet that summed it all up is, “This ‘trend’ is getting outta hand.”
Despite the backlash on Twitter, where snark and brutal honesty reign supreme, the response on TikTok itself has been surprisingly more forgiving. Some fans have praised the club for at least trying to keep up with modern trends.
While the attempt to ride a TikTok trend may have fallen flat with some fans, it’s clear that Manchester United Women’s marketing team is keen on engaging with a younger audience. Whether this approach was the right one or not remains debatable.
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