New World Cup Ad Challenges Biases Against Women's Soccer

Women's soccer isn't as popular as men's soccer ... and many people believe it's because the women just don't play with as much skill, speed or drama as the men. In a timely new ad, telecom giant Orange is challenging that perception by using deepfake videos to superimpose the faces of famous French national men's team players on the bodies of players from the French women's World Cup team.

The campaign is inspired by a study from the University of Zurich that found most people judge the quality of men's and women's soccer similarly when the gender of players is obscured, but once the gender is revealed, male players are rated more highly. As one of the co-authors of the study concluded, the results of their research "refute the assumption that low demand for women's professional soccer is based on the quality of the female players' performances."