CarMax ads featuring basketball star Sue Bird go viral, call attention to gender bias in sports
Sue Bird of the Seattle Storm celebrates during the game against the Las Vegas Aces in Game Three of the WNBA Finals on October 6, 2020 at Feld Entertainment Center in Palmetto, Florida.

A series of CarMax advertisements featuring WNBA superstar Sue Bird, which recently went viral on social media, uses humor and misdirection to elevate female athletes who have faced decades of underrepresentation in media. Bird's accomplishments on the court put her among the best players to ever play professional basketball.

The ads — part of CarMax's "Call Your Shot" campaign — were released earlier this month but took off on Twitter over the weekend. The spot gaining the most attention starred Bird, NBA standout Steph Curry and an actor portraying a CarMax employee who was overjoyed to sell a vehicle to an athlete of Bird's caliber. It challenges gender bias in sports.

"I think it's setting a new standard because it has resonated so positively with so many people," said Nancy Lough, a professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, who studies sports marketing and gender equity. The commercial understands that "today's consumer is smart," she told CNBC. "They want to be respected. Women want to be respected, but men appreciate that [there] needs to be respect across the board."

In the ad, the CarMax associate tells Curry, "Man, if you'd have told me this morning I'd be working with a four-time champ ..." Before he can finish, he's interrupted by the Golden State Warriors guard, who believes he's correcting the CarMax rep by saying he's only won three league titles.

"No. I sold a car to Sue Bird," the employee says in the ad, pointing across the lot as the camera cuts to Bird, a longtime Seattle Storm guard, who is seen waving and stepping into the vehicle.

"Eleven all-star appearances, can you imagine?" the salesman asks. Curry, a 33-year-old seven-time NBA all-star, responds, "I mean, I'm working on it."

The commercial has resonated on social media; in one Twitter post, the video has 1.7 million views.

"This is the best ad I've ever seen," tweeted Sarah Fuller, the two-sport Vanderbilt University athlete who last year became the first woman to score points in a Power 5 conference college football game.

The viral moment for the CarMax ads comes as Bird's alma mater, the University of Connecticut, plays in the women's NCAA basketball tournament's Final Four on Friday. The women's games this year have enjoyed strong viewership following the rise in popularity of the WNBA in its Covid-shortened season last year. The WNBA's 2021 season, its 25th, is expected to begin later this spring.

Graham Unterberger — a senior copywriter at the Martin Agency, which worked on the CarMax campaign — said he found out that Bird was partnering with the auto retailer in the fall, around the time the Storm won the WNBA title for the fourth time.

"When we saw her name, we were like, 'This is freaking awesome. We have the best basketball player on the planet that we can write spots for,'" Unterberger said in a video call with CNBC. "After writing spots, we saw the potential to pair [Curry and Bird] together."

One reason the commercial starring Bird and Curry strikes a chord is that it places a female athlete's career accolades firmly above those of a male athlete, Lough said.

"Historically, traditionally and very commonplace today, a WNBA athlete being compared to an NBA athlete is always positioned as though the WNBA is lesser than, and, in this case, we actually get to see that flipped in a really fun and clever and novel new way," she said.

The ad is also a testament to the recognizable brand that Bird has built across her nearly two decades in the WNBA, Lough added.

The No. 1 pick in the 2002 draft, Bird has spent her entire WNBA career with the Storm, recording the most assists in league history. The 40-year-old Bird is returning for the upcoming 2021 season.

In the past, companies that wanted to use an athlete to help build their brand have generally just turned to male sports figures, Lough said. However, there has been a shift toward better marketing representation of female athletes, she added, pointing to tennis stars Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka as examples.

Bird's series with CarMax — which recently became the WNBA's first-ever official auto retail partner — serves as the latest chapter of that welcome evolution, Lough said.

Another instance came earlier this month, when Los Angeles Sparks forward Chiney Ogwumike, a two-time WNBA all-star and ESPN commentator, starred in a solo ad campaign for food-delivery service DoorDash .