Brandi Chastain's Hall of Fame Plaque

Submission 5,512

About

Brandi Chastain's Hall of Fame Plaque is a series of image macros based on the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame commemorative plague of former professional soccer player Brandi Chastain. Many believed that the plaque did not resemble the subject and compared it to other lambasted artist depictions cultural figures, similar to the reaction to Tom Brady's Courtroom Sketch and Cristiano Ronaldo Bust.

Origin

On May 21nd, 2018, the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame inducted former professional soccer player Brandi Chastain with a commemorative plaque.

That day, the San Fransisco Bay Area news outlet The Mercury News^[1] uploaded a video to YouTube entitled "Brandi Chastain reacts to her new San Francisco Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame plaque." In the video, Chastain says of the plaque "It's not very flattering, but it's nice." The video (shown below) received more than 18,000 views in two days.

Spread

After the Mercury News reported on the plaque, many online criticized the appearance of the plaque, claiming that it did not resemble Chastain. San Fransisco Chronicle sports columnist Ann Killion tweeted, ^[2] "Brandi Chastain is one of the most beautiful athletes I’ve ever covered. How this became her plaque is a freaking embarrassment for BASHOF. Makes Cristiano’s look perfect." The post (shown below, left) received more than 730 retweets and 3,100 likes in two days.

CBS Boston Anchor Liam Martin posted a series of image of infamously criticized pieces of art based on cultural figures, including Tom Brady's Courtroom Sketch and Cristiano Ronaldo's Bust. They captioned the tweet,^[3] "The Brandi Chastain plaque goes into the Art Fails Hall of Fame." Within 24 hours, the post (shown below, center) received more than 295 retweets and 1,000 likes.

Additionally, people began comparing the bust to other cultural figures. Twitter^[4] user @Juanito_Manziel responded to a user who had retweeted and commented on Ann Killion's tweet and compared the image to President Jimmy Carter (shown below, right).

That day, Twitter^[5] published a Moments page about the plaque. Additionally, the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame^[6] announced that they would be redoing the plaque. "It was not a good job on the part of the artist. We're going to do a better job this time," said Hall of Fame president Kevin O'Brien.

Several media outlets covered the plaque, including USA Today,^[6] Uproxx,^[7] NPR,^[8] HuffPost^[9] and more.

That night, Chastain appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live to discuss the plaque. The video (shown below) received more than 23,000 views in less than 24 hours.