Serena Williams is one of the new faces of Bumble. Serena Williams has dominated every aspect of her life, and she took that mentality to her new Super Bowl ad for Bumble. The 23 Grand Slam champion appeared in the commerical for the campaign, "The Ball is in Her Court." In the ad, the tennis super star encourages women to not wait and that they have the power. Williams tells women, "You already have it. So make the first move, in work, in love, and in life." Before the Super Bowl, the company teased the commerical. Who could be better to lead Bumble's "The Ball is in Her Court" campaign than the G.O.A.T. herself?<doc-sep>“If I waited to be invited in, I never would have stood out,” Williams says in a voiceover. “If I waited for change to happen, I never would have made a difference.”<doc-sep>You'd think making the first move would come easy to Serena Williams, one of the most successful athletes of all time. But even with all her accomplishments, the tennis legend admits that advocating for herself is sometimes difficult. "I mean, 80 percent [to] 90 percent of the time, I feel insecure about making the first move," Williams tells Glamour in an interview for her new campaign with Bumble, "The Ball Is in Her Court," which encourages women to do just that: make the first move. "[Women have] kind of been trained to feel like we shouldn't make the first move, whether it's in love or whether it's asking for a promotion or asking to be in the forefront. But now we're retraining our minds and saying it's OK to make the first move." Bumble will run a 30-second spot for "The Ball Is in Her Court" during the first quarter of the Super Bowl on Sunday night. It focuses on Williams' tennis career, which started because she put herself in the game. "If I waited to be invited in, I never would've stood out," she says in the spot over a montage of her tennis clips . "If I waited for change to happen, I never would've made a difference." This partnership is a dream come true for Bumble founder and CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd, who tells us an early vision board for the company included Williams. "At the beginning of Bumble, everyone said, 'Women don't make the first move. Why would you ever start a company that would encourage women to speak first? That's not how nature works,'" Wolfe Herd tells Glamour. "And so, in an effort to try to normalize that, I went to the tennis court, and I texted our very early team and said, 'If we work really, really hard and prove that the ball is always in our court on Bumble, maybe one day Serena would want to attach herself and be a partner with us.'" Wolfe Herd's and Williams' successes didn't come without setbacks, though. In fact, that's a key takeaway from this campaign: Women shouldn't be afraid of the outcome when making the first move. Just do it. Both Wolfe Herd and Williams embrace this mind-set. "Failure's great," Williams says. "I don't like the word failure because I feel like it should mean try. It just didn't work out this time, but it'll work out next time. When I first started my fashion brand—I've been doing it for years—and the first times it wasn't successful. And now we're making big moves." Adds Wolfe Herd, "There's so much power in having the opportunity to fail. I think [failure] has a really bad rap sometimes, because the fact that you got out there and tried something and did something—that's better than never doing anything at all, right?"<doc-sep>
Can't get enough Serena Williams? Bumble's got you covered. The tennis champ is the star of the app's new commercial and the co-creative director of its new campaign, "The Ball Is in Her Court." But wait — Serena didn't meet her husband on Bumble, did she? Nope, and even though Alexis Ohanian makes a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo, the focus of the ad isn't on Bumble as a dating app. For those of you who don't know (because we sure didn't), Bumble also offers platforms to network for business and make new friends. Bumble Bizz helps you find jobs and make professional connections in your area, while Bumble BFF lets you swipe right and left on potential friends, instead of dating partners. It's these offshoots that are the focus of the new spot, both using Bumble's signature "women make the first move" strategy. The commercial follows Serena's journey "through her own experience of making first moves," Bumble said in a statement, starting with shots of young Serena (played by an actress) waiting by the side of a tennis court, hesitating to jump in. "The world tells you to wait," she says in a voiceover. "But if I waited to be invited in, I never would have stood out." Cut to Serena killing it on the court and in the office (she has her own fashion line, FYI), as she says, "If I waited for change to happen, I never would've made a difference. So make the first move. Don't wait to be told your place. Take it." The ad ends with Serena on the court, ready to serve and looking into the camera. "Don't wait to be given power," she says. "Because here's what they won't tell you: We already have it." Check out the full spot below, and catch the 30-second version during the Super Bowl this Sunday.