The Internet Is Having A Field Day With Gatorade’s Questionable “Let Her Cook” WNBA Slogan
How did no one at Gatorade catch this mistake? Ad campaigns are often times crucial to the success of a business. An eye-popping, attention-grabbing advertisement can change the course of a company’s history. Think Nike’s “Just Do It,” or Apple’s eternally studied “1984” commercial that promoted Macintosh when it was first released. Those advertisements resonated with consumers so much that they helped shape the brand for decades. Something tells me this latest Gatorade ad campaign for the WNBA is not […] The post The Internet Is Having A Field Day With Gatorade’s Questionable “Let Her Cook” WNBA Slogan first appeared on Whiskey Riff.


How did no one at Gatorade catch this mistake?
Ad campaigns are often times crucial to the success of a business. An eye-popping, attention-grabbing advertisement can change the course of a company’s history. Think Nike’s “Just Do It,” or Apple’s eternally studied “1984” commercial that promoted Macintosh when it was first released. Those advertisements resonated with consumers so much that they helped shape the brand for decades.
Something tells me this latest Gatorade ad campaign for the WNBA is not one of those…
There’s no doubt that women’s sports have become more popular in the past couple of years, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the “rising tide lifting all boats” correlates with the emergence of Caitlin Clark. The former Iowa Hawkeye standout and current Indiana Fever star is not only critical to the success of the WNBA… she’s been an ambassador for all women’s sports across the board.
Ryan Brewer, an associate professor of finance at Indiana University Columbus, found that of the $200 million in revenue that the WNBA brought in in 2024, Caitlin Clark was single handedly responsible for 26.5% of that revenue. In other words, Caitlin Clark’s success and story is helping cash the checks of others across the WNBA, and undoubtedly bringing eyes to the game.
So how did Gatorade – a company that traditionally nails it with their advertising – honor Caitlin Clark and the WNBA? Well, they rolled out a questionable and unfortunate slogan right around the WNBA’s All Star break.
See if you can figure out why people are cracking jokes, and wondering why the world-renowned brand didn’t think this out more carefully:
Ah, yes. Nothing like promoting women in sports than pasting the words “Let her cook” as big as you can right next to them… all across the world.
For those that aren’t familiar with what “Let her cook” or “Let him cook” means in the modern day, it’s basically the modern day version of “don’t let them get hot.” If someone is “cooking” in sports, their performing a skill at a really high level, and the three-word phrase in encouraging everyone else to “let them” continue doing so.
But that’s unfortunately not what comes to mind first for a lot of people out in the world – especially those who don’t call themselves fans of the WNBA, and often criticize the women’s league for not being entertaining enough. Do I really have to explain why making a slogan promoting women’s sports “kitchen adjacent” is unfortunate? No? Okay great. I’m sure we’re all on the same page about this being a swing and a miss from Gatorade.
I’m always astounded how things like this get through the screening process and out into the big, billboard world. You’d think that someone higher up at Gatorade would have had some foresight with this one. I know I would have at least chimed in and asked, “We’re not worried about how some people will read this?”
Now, the internet is having a field day with the idea that a slogan for women’s sports would accidentally be derogatory: