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

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.

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35 Comments

seanismorris

said about 4 years ago

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

said about 4 years ago

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

said about 4 years ago

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

said about 4 years ago

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

said about 4 years ago

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