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This past year, the WNBA has seen higher viewership and fandom than ever before, but, in turn, it has also seen a huge rise in online hate. So much so, that the WNBA commissioner has acknowledged the toll it must be taking on players’ mental well-being. To combat this we developed Block The Negativity / Post Up Positivity, a campaign aimed at supporting athlete’s mental health while on social media, centered around an AI-powered tool that blocks hate speech in real time.
Designed to blur out negativity directed at players on social media feeds, the tool and campaign’s message came to life through a film featuring Angel Reese, head coach Teresa Weatherspoon and others, where they physically block real hateful comments, visually representing how the tool protects players and promotes a more positive online space.
For the past two years, Chicago Sky has sponsored The Net: a network of mental health resources designed to support their athletes’ mental wellness. This year, the brief aimed to expand The Net’s mental health-supporting efforts beyond the Chicago Sky and into the WNBA and culture at large. The assignment goal was to reach a wider audience and create a meaningful impact in mental health awareness. To ensure our work was timely, our creative challenge was to address the rise of athletes’ mental health issues specifically created by social media. With any creative execution we put into the world, we knew we wanted to give athletes, and others, a way to care for their mental well-being in a place that is flooded with negativity.
Rather than just talk about the rise of online hate affecting the mental well-being of those in sports, we decided to take action by developing an AI-powered tool that fans and consumers could actually use, and benefit from, by filtering out harmful comments aimed at the Chicago Sky and its players. We launched our innovative technology through a film where we saw Angel Reese and other players blocking real, harmful tweets to symbolize how the tool worked on their end. By promoting the tool and our efforts, we aimed to not only protect the player’s but also inspire a conversation around the problem and inspire change and the spread of positivity among others.
Our campaign leaked a day before the launch, and by the time it officially went live, the campaign had generated 1.12K mentions, 2.27M reach, 1M views, and 17,560 likes, all organically.
According to 2024 research, 87% of female athletes have experienced some level of online harm. The campaign addresses the growing issue of online hate and mental health struggles within female athletes, particularly as the WNBA's popularity continues to rise. It highlights the critical need for mental health support and a safer online space for females in sports.
Yes, the campaign is based around an AI-powered tool specifically developed to protect players’ mental well-being against online hate. The tool, which aims to become an app for others to use, is trained to filter out and block hate speech and harmful content within social media feeds in real time, while promoting the spread of positivity online.
