Opinion: Watch and see how women are taking control of the Super Bowl

MIAMI — Nearly 30 years after Cindy Crawford showed up at a gas station in her Daisy Dukes and white tank top, flipping her hair while two young boys stared, women are again getting a prominent role in some Super Bowl ads.

But instead of being showcased as a sex object, with little value beyond being ogled, the women who will be seen in living rooms and dens across the country Sunday will project images of power and strength. World Cup champions Carli Lloyd and Crystal Dunn are featured as football players in a Secret commercial – to air before the game. San Francisco 49ers assistant Katie Sowers, the first woman to coach in a Super Bowl, stars in an ad for Microsoft Surface. And Olay has an all-female team of astronauts.

It’s reflective not only of changes in how women are viewed in society, but of how advertisers, marketing agencies and even the NFL are waking up to women being a significant portion of the fan base and having a greater role in buying decisions. 

“We’re not doing the typical 'macho beer commercial’ ad," Kathleen Hall, corporate vice president of brand, advertising and research for Microsoft, told USA TODAY Sports. “The venue has changed. There’s a lot more – I don’t know if I’d use the word broad, but more inclusive advertisers for sure.”

And with in-game ads costing more than $5 million for 30 seconds, well, “You can’t pay that ticket and ignore half the people that are watching," said Hall.

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The NFL is not an obvious leader in the equality movement. Despite women making up nearly half of its fan base, and driving some 80% of consumer purchasing decisions, the NFL largely ignored them until the past five years or so.

Its outreach attempts were limited to drenching the league in Pepto-Bismol pink each October as a nod to breast cancer awareness, or hosting those condescending “ladies nights” where women could learn what a first down or a punt was. Its handling of domestic violence cases has improved since its handling of the Ray Rice episode in 2014, although the league still all but requires he cooperation of the woman to take any action.

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Despite that, the NFL has made some surprising, and powerful, strides. Earlier this month, Sarah Thomas, a full-time NFL referee since 2015, became the first woman to work a postseason game. Since 2015, when the Arizona Cardinals hired Jen Welter as a linebackers coach for training camp, several teams have added female coaches, be it as training camp interns or to their full-time staffs.

Sowers, first hired by the Atlanta Falcons as a wide receivers intern in 2016, has been a full-time assistant coach for the 49ers the past two seasons. Callie Brownson, a coaching intern with the Buffalo Bills this season, was hired Friday as new Cleveland Browns coach Kevin Stefanski's chief of staff, the same job he had when he broke into the NFL.

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There also are eight female athletic trainers working for NFL teams, three of whom will be on the field Sunday.

“There can always be more,” Sowers said this week. “Obviously, you can see progress is being made and that’s what’s truly important, that we just continue to make progress. As long as we continue to make progress, we will see change.”

But change also requires a shift in societal attitudes, which makes the Super Bowl ads so significant.

Watch any broadcast of an NFL game – or most sporting events, for that matter – and many of the ads are geared toward men. The actors are men. The products being promoted – beer, cars, underwear and erectile dysfunction – are for men.

“The sports world is viewing it as a man’s game because men are playing the game. Also, because there are fewer women in ads, and fewer women in front of and behind the camera,” said Lynn Branigan, president and CEO of She Runs It, a group that encourages and promotes women’s role in the advertising agency.

“What you’re seeing with (some of the Super Bowl ads) is the best-kept secret of business unfolding here,” Branigan said. “Women are watching the program, and it’s a missed opportunity for marketers if they don’t market to women.”

But the Super Bowl is watched around the globe, not just by football fans, so making the choice to advertise to women – or air gender-neutral ads – isn’t the toughest sale.

It’s when ads start airing during preseason games or in late October that signals a change.

Microsoft’s Hall said its Super Bowl ads generally have a theme of empowering people, and its agency suggested featuring Sowers. But after talking with her, Hall said they decided not to wait. A 30-second version of its Super Bowl ad featuring Sowers began airing late in the season.

The response has been “amazing,” Hall said and, indeed, Sowers’ story has been one of the most popular ones at the Super Bowl.

“It’s huge,” 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk said. “The NFL sets the stage for a lot of other businesses around the world. When you can see something as successful as the NFL embrace women and empower women, it just encourages other businesses to do the same.”

Football isn't just for men. It's high time the NFL and its advertisers recognized that. 

Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on Twitter @nrarmour. 

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