Alix Earle and Ashtin Earle Credit: Netflix
By Megan Armstrong on

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The Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers will play the NFL’s first-ever game in Melbourne, Australia, next Thursday, Sept. 10. Netflix will exclusively stream the game, with Noah Eagle and Luke Kuechly on the call.

The Rams and 49ers hate each other. Rams head coach Sean McVay and 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan are frenemies. Los Angeles is now home to the Monstars, while San Francisco remains cloaked in injury-riddled mystery.

Starved fans will rejoice in having football back on their screens, even if it’s a terrible game, but this marquee matchup sells itself for Netflix. Women, however, require a patronizing nudge, according to whoever conceptualized and signed off on what you’re about to watch.

The NFL already came under fire this offseason for its reported WAGs-centric marketing plan to appeal to women. Apparently, that was just the appetizer. This week, Netflix dropped an ad spot starring influencers Alix Earle and Ashtin Earle, and it’s not going over well with its target demographic.

The 73-second video arrived two days before Earle Meets World, their family’s reality series, premiered on Netflix. The cross-promotion? Smart. The execution? Miserable.

To start, Alix and Ashtin are dressed as a 49er and Ram, respectively.

“Hey, guys, we’re here trying some fits for the Rams-49ers game in Australia on Netflix,” Alix says.

Then, retired NFL player Isaac Rochell bursts through the door, screaming, “Alright, ladies!”

“The fate of these two teams depends on you guys,” Rochell, a new member of ESPN’s Creator Network, says while handing them helmets. The Earles are confused, with Ashtin asking, “Isn’t this just, like, for fun?” Rochell blows a whistle in their faces and coaches them through drills.

“Alright, ladies, post on 2, ready—” Rochell says, before Alix interrupts him to say, “Oh! A post? That’s more my speed. Do you want a TikTok, or do you want a Reel?”

Eventually, Alix and Ashtin bail on Rochell. They take off their helmets in slo-mo while flipping their hair, a la Denise Richards in Friends, to the tune of romantic jazz. “We’re totally ready,” Alix says. “For football?” Rochell asks. “No! For Netflix,” Ashtin says. And that’s mercifully that.

Predictably, Netflix received backlash for identifying whatever you want to call that as the best idea in the room.

“Is this ad supposed to get more women to watch the NFL?” Linda Cohn, recently retired from ESPN, posted.

“This trend of sports advertising involving women being uneducated/uninterested when it comes to sports and men having to show them the ropes (the whole ‘girl math/terms’ stuff, too) is both very insulting and very concerningly misogynistic,” Kelsey Surmacz of The Hockey News wrote.

“All the ‘marketing toward women’ the NFL has done this offseason has been beyond misogynistic,” Ashley Aireonna wrote. “Such a bad look. Ban domestic and sexual abusers, put more educated woman talking about the sport in front of cameras, do more dad- daughter events etc. That’s how to ACTUALLY make women invested/welcomed in the sport.”

Check out more reactions below.

About Megan Armstrong

Since first getting published as a student by the Kansas City Star in 2013, Megan Armstrong has gone wherever curiosity and stories have taken her, specializing in sports, media, music, and culture coverage. She also has an extensive background in interviewing and profiling public figures. Her work has appeared in Billboard, Boardroom, Bleacher Report, Esquire, GQ, GRAMMY.com, NYLON, Newsweek, Teen Vogue, The Hollywood Reporter, UPROXX, and elsewhere.

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