A Norman High School alum received an award for her work on an advertising piece about the about the Women’s National Basketball Association.
Mia Shumway, a Norman High School graduate and current senior at Brigham Young University, wrote and directed the advertisement titled “Welcome to the W” where she focused on redefining the “W” in WNBA. The Television Academy Foundation honored Shumway at the 44th College Television Awards over the weekend for her work on the ad.
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Shumway was assigned the WNBA as the brand for a class assignment during her junior year at BYU. While working on the commercial manifesto, one thing kept standing out to her, Shumway said.
“The W and the WNBA just kept bothering me,” Shumway said. “That’s something that has bothered me a lot throughout my life, just noticing how women’s sports leagues are called “women’s sports leagues,” whereas men’s sports leagues don’t have that title with them.”
Shumway said the way people talk about topics, such as women’s sports, can shape the way other people think or feel about the topic. She added that oftentimes, discussions surrounding women’s sports can be condescending and “ made it feel like men owned sports rather than them being equal.”
Since she couldn’t rename the WNBA or the NBA, Shumway decided to redefine the “W” and give it a new meaning.
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“What does the ‘W’ in WNBA really stand for,” a voice in Shumway’s commercial said. “Well, the W is wake up. Warm-up. Work to do. Work hard. Work harder.”
The video features a woman standing on a basketball court in dark lighting, dribbling a basketball while the question is first asked. As the new definition is given, the video cuts between archival videos of various WNBA basketball games.
“The ‘W’ is world-class. World-renowned. World in the palm of our hands,” the voiceover said.
For Shumway, the advertisement is not just about women’s basketball, it’s about all female sports, more of an anthem piece, as she called it.
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The team — which included students Annie Ebert and Ben Thornock — recorded part of the advertisement in the gymnasium of the school Shumway worked at at the time. She added that she was really thankful for the principal’s “chillness” is letting her team film in the school as they didn’t have the correct liability insurance and it kept the project cost low.
“ It cost zero dollars to produce and then we ended up winning the Emmy for it,” Shumway said.
The award ceremony took place in Hollywood on April 5 and Shumway was in attendance. The ceremony saw award presenters from “Abbott Elementary,” “The White Lotus,” “9-1-1” and other popular television shows. The selection process emulates that of the Emmy Award and is judged by College Television Award members, according to the Television Academy Foundation website.
“The College Television Awards celebrate the next generation of storytellers, and this year’s winners have demonstrated exceptional creativity, innovation and dedication to their craft,” Tina Perry, chair of the Television Academy Foundation, said in a press release.
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Shumway said she didn’t expect to win but felt her team had a good chance. After winning the award, it provides her a larger platform to talk about the message behind the advertisement.
While on stage, Shumway talked about how her high school mascot was a tiger and when the boy’s teams players, the team was called the Tigers. But when she played, the team was called the Lady Tigers.
“ I got to speak on a little bit (on) the importance of the way we speak about women’s sports,” she said. “That was the largest platform that I had throughout the whole link of the project to actually say that message. I just gave a little bit of a speech about my experience with seeing how women’s sports are valued in, spoken about differently than men’s sports.”
Shumway said she’s thankful for the skills and guidance she received while a student at Norman High School, adding that her teachers were pivotal in her decision to pursue writing and major in advertising.
“ My speech and debate teachers… really helped me choose to be bold in spreading things that I believe in,” she said. “So I would really owe it back to my Norman roots.”
