It’s no secret that there is a pay gap between men and women pro basketball players, but a new campaign from non-profit Fast and Female is illustrating the stark divide with an even more powerful statistic: the highest-paid WNBA athletes don’t even earn as much as several of the top-paid NBA mascots.

In fact, Rocky the Mountain Lion, the mascot for the NBA’s Denver Nuggets, is paid three times the salary of the highest-paid player in the WNBA. “That stat alone shows just how far today’s female athletes still need to come in the fight for equality,” explains Gabriela Estrada, executive director of the non-profit.

Armed with that fact, the group paired with creative agency Hard Work Club to create a mascot – Ally Hoop – around which it has built a campaign to push for greater pay equity on the eve of Canada’s first WNBA game. It’s “an unconventional way to call attention to a serious issue,” says Estrada.

Ally Hoop “felt very compelling to us as a different way to approach to this conversation,” Meghan Kraemer, co-founder and ECD at Hard Work Club, tells strategy.

“Historically, campaigns around this topic have been quite earnest in nature and it feels like detractors just tune those messages out,” she adds. “We wanted to do something that’s purposefully a bit more fun, and a mascot’s inherent role is to hype up fans. The idea of hyping up fans to engage with and tune into women’s sports felt like it could disarm some of that negative pushback that the other campaigns have received.”

The mascot’s name is punny by design. Not only does it reference the alley-oop basketball play, but it also stands as an ally in the fight for pay equity – and is intended to help Fast and Female recruit more potential allies among those the campaign reaches.

Alongside an animated video of Ally that is being shared online, the campaign also comprises digital billboards, in-restaurant posters and social – including an influencer campaign spanning a range of sports and other athletic disciplines. In addition, Fast and Female is selling “Ally Hoop” t-shirts and other merchandise through its website to support the cause.

A social giveaway of tickets for this Saturday’s Canadian WNBA debut is also planned in the days leading up to it, and Fast and Female will also have a presence during the game itself by sending young female athletes in the aforementioned t-shirts to promote awareness of the issue and the “Ally Hoop” campaign.

Among the star athletes involved in the effort are Canadian women’s soccer player Janine Beckie and WNBA player Laeticia Amihere, who are spokespeople for the campaign and will be making a number of media appearances in support of it. It is also being supported by a number of Canadian Olympians, athletes and broadcasters – including former Canadian ice hockey player and TSN reporter Tessa Bonhomme and Kat Stefankiewicz, the in-game and digital host for the Toronto Raptors and host for NBA TV Canada – across both Instagram and TikTok.

Vendo and Bell are handling media for the campaign, while Glossy and Hype handled PR. Hype also handled the influencer partnerships.