Abby Wambach is an icon in American sports - a two-time Olympic gold medalist, twice part of the USWNT World Cup champions, and a six-time winner of the U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year award. Her retirement was met with fanfare from many media outlets, but really wasn't covered to a major extent - certainly not to the level of a Derek Jeter or David Ortiz.
However, before her final USWNT match on December 16th, Wambach made a dramatic, and poignant statement on Twitter.
She deleted her account immediately after.
At the same time, Gatorade, who is one of Wambach's sponsors, released a new advertisement through their social media channels.
Wambach's advertisement focuses on the four words of her final tweet - "Make Them Forget Me." This powerful statement ties directly into not only her tweet, but her deletion of her Twitter account. For the first time, a superstar athlete, one who had a massive reach and voice on social media, effectively executed a social campaign by eliminating their social media. While tributes from MLS, NWSL teams and media outlets poured in to honor her career, Abby Wambach deleted her account, choosing to not only tier her advertising with her social, but to live it - to have people forget about her by no longer engaging with them. It's a mic drop on social media - a dramatic, powerful and impactful statement made by a retiring superstar that illicits strong feelings from a massive user base. In this case, however, it wasn't just the video and the tweet that stirred emotion - it was Wambach living her commitment to be forgotten by deleting her social media that tied the campaign together.