Let’s be clear: Advertisers do portray mothers across advertising, more so than women without children. But the standard portrayal features mothers as caretakers engrossed in domestic tasks and has changed little since the 1950s.

The Winter Olympics are underway and seem to be trekking in the footsteps of Paris 2024, a.k.a. the “Social Media Olympics.” Once again, we’re seeing trends play out in real time as athletes and celebrity fans play an increased role in driving brand engagement. We’re breaking down the top headlines out of Milano Cortina this week.

Super Bowl (SB) ads are often a pulse check on trends in the year to come, at least from an advertising perspective — after all, these are the companies betting big on reaching the most Americans possible in a single spot. And this year, many SB ads featured AI companies and some were even created by AI, although a majority of SB viewers didn’t like them.

Women make their way to Radio Row

On Monday, women athlete partnership platform Parity shared results from a survey of almost 12K adults across the U.S., Canada, the UK, Ireland, and Australia on how sports fans perceive gender equity in the upcoming Winter Olympics.

In an exclusive with The GIST today, Gen Alpha girls empowerment brand Rebel Girls (RG) is announcing a new media partnership with Athletes Unlimited’s basketball arm, AU Pro Basketball (AUBB). While basketball has been a priority for RG, evidenced by activations with A’ja Wilson and Sabrina Ionescu, this is the brand’s first foray into hoops at the organizational level.

The intrigue surrounding Naomi Osaka goes far beyond tennis. Born to a Japanese mom and Haitian-American dad, Osaka trained diligently to become one of American tennis’ top stars.

Though the WNBA’s 2026 season schedule remains up in the air due to ongoing CBA negotiations, forthcoming W franchises are rolling ahead with preseason marketing campaigns.

This week, the inaugural FIFA Women's Champions Cup — the sport’s first-ever intercontinental club competition for women — is fielding its final rounds in London, England. The months-long tournament hasn’t exactly received mainstream media coverage, but that may change thanks to Kynsica’s new title sponsorship.

Annika Malacinski has the kind of Olympic story media outlets and marketers dream of. The 24-year-old daughter of a ski instructor grew up in Steamboat Springs, Colorado — one of the only areas in the U.S. with the infrastructure to facilitate Nordic combined, a marriage between cross-country skiing and ski jumping.

The Olympics have a marketing problem: While passion for the Summer Games is a worldwide phenomenon, it’s only accessible to brands every four years. It’s even worse for the Winter Olympics, which has fewer marketing dollars and less media attention, demonstrating that brands often fail to harness the total appeal of winter sports.