The Problem Isn’t Pink. It’s Patronising

How gendered marketing continues to misunderstand half the audience

In the rush to appear progressive, some brands have started releasing “female only” products. But instead of championing inclusion, they’re revealing just how poorly they understand their audience.

Sky Sports’ new TikTok channel Halo is a perfect example. Framed as content “designed for women,” it arrives drenched in pink graphics, glitter fonts and oversimplified commentary. It positions itself as a gateway for women into sports media, as though women aren’t already there. As though women need a sweetened, sparkly version of the very coverage they already watch.

Monster’s new “women’s energy drink,” wrapped in pastel packaging with a gendered marketing campaign, lands in the same category. Well intentioned, maybe,  but ultimately patronising, unnecessary and rooted in outdated assumptions about what women want.

Women aren’t a niche. They’re not a fringe group hovering at the edges of sport. They make up nearly half of sports viewership globally, and in many sports, — football, F1, tennis — the female audience is one of the fastest growing segments.

Women attend races. They buy merchandise. They analyse strategy. They follow driver development, team politics, regulations, tyre compounds, fuel loads, engine mapping, the exact same details any so-called “mainstream” fan follows. They participate at every level: fans, journalists, engineers, creators, athletes.

So why do brands keep treating them like they’re a separate species?

When a brand says “this one’s for the women,” what they often mean is: “We don’t know how to market to women, so here’s something pink.”

Instead of doing the work — instead of representing women authentically in their storytelling, hiring women behind the scenes, interviewing female athletes seriously or producing content that genuinely reflects women’s interests — brands take shortcuts. They package the same content in glitter fonts and hope that counts as progress.

But making things pink doesn’t make them inclusive. It makes them smaller.

It suggests the main product,  the standard broadcast, the standard drink, the standard analysis,  is for men. And the “female only” version? A side category. A novelty. A marketing exercise.

It Reinforces the Exact Stereotypes It Claims to Challenge.

By releasing separate “female” products, brands implicitly suggest:

• Women need sports content explained differently.

• Women prefer aesthetics over substance.

• Women can’t handle “real” analysis unless it’s softened or simplified.

• Women should engage with sport at a surface level rather than a technical one.
  
  

None of that is true. And worse, women have spent decades fighting these stereotypes. They’ve proven, repeatedly, that they don’t need translations or sparkles or cartoon captions to engage with sport.

Creating a “girls’ version” of sports media doesn’t uplift women; it reduces them.

Progress in sports media comes from recognising women as full participants in the conversation, not giving them a glittery corner to sit in. If brands truly want to support women, 

Stop segmenting the audience by gender. Stop assuming women want a different product. Stop treating “female fans” as a monolith with identical preferences. 

Start integrating women into the core of sports storytelling. Start hiring women in decision making roles. Start designing content with diversity in mind from the beginning, not as an afterthought.

True inclusion means the default audience includes women. Not the “adapted version,” not the “lighter version,” not the “pink edition.” The default.

Women have been real fans, dedicated, knowledgeable, passionate,  for as long as sport has existed. They don’t need a special drink or a special TikTok channel or a brand approved aesthetic to prove it.

The idea that women require a simplified, glitter coated version of sports media isn’t just outdated. It’s offensive. It tells women that brands still see them as outsiders, as tourists in a space where they actually belong.

If brands want to keep up with the modern audience, they need to stop shrinking women to fit old marketing ideas.

Women don’t need a “female-only” version of sport. They need to be treated like what they are: part of the mainstream.