Apple creates Memoji tribute to US Women's World Cup victory

AppleInsider

Apple celebrates the U.S. women's national soccer team with a USA-themed Memoji tribute on its homepage.

The United States' women's national soccer team has claimed their fourth victory -- and their second in two years -- defeating the Netherlands 2-0 in the 2019 World Cup final.

Apple has joined the sports world in celebrating the victory by revamping its homepage with a Memoji video paying homage to the U.S. team.

The short animation showcases three Memoji cheering, plus iMessage effect confetti and raining soccer balls in a red, white and blue celebration of soccer and the athletes who play. It finishes with a simple message of "Job well done."

Memoji are cartoon-like avatars that tap into Apple's TrueDepth camera and ARKit technologies to animate in time with a user's facial expressions. A personalized take on Animoji, the Memoji feature was introduced alongside iOS 12 last year. Apple looks to improve on Memoji with iOS 13 this fall with additional character modification options and new Memoji stickers for use in Messages and other apps.

An Apple Music ad campaign timed to debut ahead of this year's Grammy Awards in February was among the first to highlight Memoji, with Apple creating special characters for popular acts Khalid, Ariana Grande and Florida Georgia Line.

The Apple.com landing page is sometimes updated to mark notable world events, typically in commemoration of federal holidays and international initiatives that align with the company's core values.

seanismorris

Congratulations ladies!  The women are the most fun to watch!

Question:  Does the governments pay their World Cup players to participate? Or, is it FIFA and backed by advertising? Or, a bit of both...

AF_Hitt

seanismorris said:

Congratulations ladies!  The women are the most fun to watch!

Question:  Does the governments pay their World Cup players to participate? Or, is it FIFA and backed by advertising? Or, a bit of both...

The vast majority of the players’ money comes from sponsorship deals and the contracts they have with their club teams. The average national team player makes around $40,000, and the teams have a salary cap of $800,000, so there’s not a lot of relative money to go around. Even the best women’s players like Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan probably are multi-millionaires in the sense that they have around $2 million. It’s why they fight so hard for equal pay, because at least in their case, they are a more attractive draw for fans than our men’s team is for sure.

avon b7

Well done to the U.S ladies!

It wasn't a stroll so the victory is deserved. They had to overcome England and Spain on the way. Two teams I was rooting for.

Congratulations!

anome

seanismorris said:

Congratulations ladies!  The women are the most fun to watch!

Question:  Does the governments pay their World Cup players to participate? Or, is it FIFA and backed by advertising? Or, a bit of both...

I believe it's the national governing body, whether that's government or corporate depends on each individual country. But the prize money will have been put up by FIFA, I expect.

The equal pay thing is kind of tricky. Yes, the women should make the same amount as the men, but the men are probably making too much, so maybe you should look at lowering their pay to at least meet the women in the middle. But then, the money is still being made, just not by the players, and that's inherently unfair.

It all used to be so much simpler when we were kids, with jumpers for goalposts...

rob53

Amber,

You need to do a little research into how the World Cup is played. It's like the Olympics, 4-years apart. The USWNT won in 2015 and now in 2019, not 2 years apart.

@Anome Do you know how much the men are getting? 

There's a huge difference and when you compare the number of championships the USWNT has won, I believe it's more than the number of "games" the USMNT has won. (I could be wrong on this but not far off.) The USWNT brings in the money for US soccer/football, not the men.

Here's the reported amount of money the women will be getting. 

The 2019 World Cup championship team will win $4 million, and the total prize money awarded to all teams during this summer’s World Cup is roughly $30 million. Both figures are double what the women's World Cup paid out to teams during the 2015 tournament in Canada.

But let’s compare those figures with the men’s World Cup: In 2018, World Cup champion France was awarded $38 million by FIFA for winning the tournament, which is more than what all of the 2019 women’s World Cup teams get combined. The prize money overall for the men’s 2018 World Cup in Russia came to a total of $400 million, or over 13 times more than the FIFA prize money for the women this summer.

edit: removed links to other websites

apple ][

I was actually rooting against the US team. Oh well, you can't win 'em all.

rob53

apple ][ said:

I was actually rooting against the US team. Oh well, you can't win 'em all.

So you were rooting for The Netherlands? If you don't like either team then why root against one of them? Poor sportsmanship.

claire1

Hmmm. Would Apple have rooted for an opposing team? I think inclusion is important and they should have but would they have?

AF_Hitt

claire1 said:

Hmmm. Would Apple have rooted for an opposing team? I think inclusion is important and they should have but would they have?

Apple is an American company, and that is where their connection to the American women's team is. Apple has no connection to The Netherlands women's team, so it'd be a little odd seeing Apple congratulate them on an American technology web site after theoretically beating the American team. Apple has a plenty good enough track record with inclusion when it comes to Pride Month, Black History Month, Women's History Month, Chinese New Year, etc. They are also the only major tech company that includes all religious holidays in their holiday calendar (Ramadan, Yom Kippur, Rosh Hashanah, etc.). Most other calendar providers, including Google, only provide the typical Easter, Christmas, etc. There are plenty of things you can criticize Apple for, but being inclusive is not one of them. As a straight, white, Christian, conservative (gasp!) American male, I appreciate what Apple does, and hope they can lead other technology companies to do that same by example.

apple ][

rob53 said:

apple ][ said:

I was actually rooting against the US team. Oh well, you can't win 'em all.

So you were rooting for The Netherlands? If you don't like either team then why root against one of them? Poor sportsmanship.

Not in particular. It didn't really matter who the opponent was.

MacPro

I watched every game played in this Fédération Internationale de Football Association World Cup and I have since the Mia Hamm days.  I moved to the USA 30 years ago from the UK and missed watching football.  I discovered the USA Women's team and actually found their football style far more enjoyable than the way men's football had become in Europe thanks to the influence of the South American teams with their professional fouls, diving, and cheating ... I'm looking at you Argentina.  

The way the USA Women's team played back then was a breath of fresh air reminiscent of football in England in the '60s. It remains that way to this day and I have had a fabulous two weeks and was thrilled to see them triumph after playing through the hardest path imaginable to the final.  Well done and may you inspire many more girls and boys to play the greatest game on earth here in the USA.

dabrace1984

AF_Hitt said:

claire1 said:

Hmmm. Would Apple have rooted for an opposing team? I think inclusion is important and they should have but would they have?

Apple is an American company, and that is where their connection to the American women's team is. Apple has no connection to The Netherlands women's team, so it'd be a little odd seeing Apple congratulate them on an American technology web site after theoretically beating the American team. Apple has a plenty good enough track record with inclusion when it comes to Pride Month, Black History Month, Women's History Month, Chinese New Year, etc. They are also the only major tech company that includes all religious holidays in their holiday calendar (Ramadan, Yom Kippur, Rosh Hashanah, etc.). Most other calendar providers, including Google, only provide the typical Easter, Christmas, etc. There are plenty of things you can criticize Apple for, but being inclusive is not one of them. As a straight, white, Christian, conservative (gasp!) American male, I appreciate what Apple does, and hope they can lead other technology companies to do that same by example.

If I recall correctly, I believe that Apple recognized the Toronto Raptors on the Apple Canada Store after they beat the Golden State Warriors. Apple doesn’t have any any connection with Toronto, or at least not the I remember. 

georgie01

anome said:

... Yes, the women should make the same amount as the men, but the men are probably making too much, so maybe you should look at lowering their pay to at least meet the women in the middle.

One form of sexism which seems to elude people nowadays is that using sex to determine pay is sexism in all cases. That seems obvious but the obvious is slipping under people’s noses as they attempt to be politically correct.

Maria Sharapova praised equal pay for women at a US Open final years ago. However, by design, women are required to play about 40% less games than men (best of 5 sets for men vs. best of 3 sets for women). So ‘equal’ pay for women actually meant equal pay for less work. That’s not equality. That is sexism because it was sex which determined pay and not work and skill. (Not to mention that they’re not as popular with viewers either.)

Obviously the US women’s soccer team is more successful than the men’s team, but it’s also extremely unlikely they’d have any chance at beating the men’s team. Men are generally much better at sports which benefit from strength and speed. It’s inescapable biology, and people enjoy seeing humanity pushed to the physical limits. Women’s sports can be enjoyable but they’re not usually at the same level as mens, and that’s good. If they ever become at the same level it means we went horribly wrong in our culture.

matrix077

Equal pay? If, like some data suggested, they brought in more rating and more revenue, then they should be paid MORE. You should be paid according to your success and money you brought in pure and simple. 

AF_Hitt

dabrace1984 said:

AF_Hitt said:

claire1 said:

Hmmm. Would Apple have rooted for an opposing team? I think inclusion is important and they should have but would they have?

Apple is an American company, and that is where their connection to the American women's team is. Apple has no connection to The Netherlands women's team, so it'd be a little odd seeing Apple congratulate them on an American technology web site after theoretically beating the American team. Apple has a plenty good enough track record with inclusion when it comes to Pride Month, Black History Month, Women's History Month, Chinese New Year, etc. They are also the only major tech company that includes all religious holidays in their holiday calendar (Ramadan, Yom Kippur, Rosh Hashanah, etc.). Most other calendar providers, including Google, only provide the typical Easter, Christmas, etc. There are plenty of things you can criticize Apple for, but being inclusive is not one of them. As a straight, white, Christian, conservative (gasp!) American male, I appreciate what Apple does, and hope they can lead other technology companies to do that same by example.

If I recall correctly, I believe that Apple recognized the Toronto Raptors on the Apple Canada Store after they beat the Golden State Warriors. Apple doesn’t have any any connection with Toronto, or at least not the I remember. 

But you just made my point. I guess Apple may have congratulated The Netherlands on their Dutch web site if they had won, but the United States won, so they congratulate them in this country.

JFC_PA

matrix077 said:

Equal pay? If, like some data suggested, they brought in more rating and more revenue, then they should be paid MORE. You should be paid according to your success and money you brought in pure and simple. 

FIFA sets the bonus structure. 

loekf

Sorry to say what an arrogant team. Nothing against winning, but please have an eye for your opponents, even after the match respect them. That player, who hates Trump and has blue hair, did not see and allow the Dutch goalkeeper to step on to the podium when there was a press moment for the best three players of the tournament. Hopefully, other countries will improve even more over the next four years.

EsquireCats

Maybe this time Xiaomi won't upload the video to their website.

frantisek

Whether is Apple international company then their local branches should behave accordingly in similar local achievements .

SpamSandwich

matrix077 said:

Equal pay? If, like some data suggested, they brought in more rating and more revenue, then they should be paid MORE. You should be paid according to your success and money you brought in pure and simple. 

It’s not pay-per-view. They agreed to play for a certain amount of money according to their individual contracts.