“If you let me play sports, I will learn what it means to be strong.”
More than 30 years later, those words remain one of the most recognizable messages in women’s sports.
This week, we catch up with Janet Champ, who started her career at Wieden+Kennedy and went on to build some of Nike’s most influential campaigns, including If You Let Me Play.
At a time when women’s sports received little attention from advertisers, Champ and her creative partner Charlotte Moore began creating ads that weren’t really about products.
They were about ambition, fear, confidence, identity, and the process of becoming. Together, we explore how stories shape culture, why women saw themselves in Janet’s work, and how a young writer who never intended to work in advertising helped change the language of women’s sports.
