Gatorade | Forget Me | 2015
The legend said, "Forget me." / Gatorade "Forget Me"
184 goals. Abby Wambach, who holds the record for the most goals scored in international soccer history, men's or women's, retired on December 16 (12/16), 2015. Her final message was "Forget me." Right to the end, Wambach was Wambach.
The problem
Since making her national team debut in 2001, she won a World Cup title, two Olympic gold medals, and the FIFA World Player of the Year award. As an openly gay athlete, she had also always spoken out for equality between men's and women's soccer.
The insight
What Gatorade drew out was something she had wished for all along: a future where the next generation achieves something so great that she herself gets forgotten. That wish was exactly what her career, and her fight for equality, had always been about.
The idea
The commercial aired only once, during her final match. Sitting in the locker room, Wambach throws her own nameplate into the trash. "Forget my name, my medals, my records." And she really did delete every one of her social media accounts. She meant what she said, and she followed through.
What happened
The video has been viewed over 4.35 million times on YouTube. Even President Obama tweeted, "You're the GOAT." It became another installment in Gatorade's series of farewell ads, following Derek Jeter's the year before.
Afterthought
There's real strength in a legend saying "forget me" herself. And there's a paradox in how those very words make sure she'll never be forgotten. One viewer said, "This isn't a commercial, this is Abby talking to us." That's what it looks like when someone clears a path for others.
