World soccer star Abby Wambach promotes homegrown New York state apples

Fishers, N.Y. – Here’s a sight you don’t see every day: a dozen children dribbling soccer balls through a state apple orchard – with none other than New York native and international soccer star Abby Wambach leading the way.

That was in fact the scene recently, when Wambach recorded television, radio and print advertisements promoting New York state apples.

Wambach grew up in Rochester, where her family operates a farm market and garden center with the same name. She may well be the most decorated U.S. woman soccer player in history. She earned her latest accolade on June 21, when she became the world’s all-time top women’s scorer, surpassing her former teammate Mia Hamm’s previous record.

The internationally recognized Wambach recently returned home to play forward for the Western New York Flash of the Women’s Professional Soccer League. Soon after, the head of the state’s apple association hatched the idea to recruit Wambach to promote New York state apples.

“Being from New York, of course I love apples, they mean home to me,” Wambach told a fruit industry newspaper in August. “I just came back home to play, and it felt natural to partner with NYAA to get the word out that the best apples come from right here.”

“We wanted to score the soccer mom vote,” confessed NYAA President Jim Allen with a grin and shrug. “With her local roots and healthy, active lifestyle, she is a fantastic apple ambassador.”

The ads were shot for New York Apple Association at Zingler Farms in Orleans County. The youth players who appear in the ads with Wambach are family or friends of staff. The commercials were written by Mason Selkowitz Marketing of Penfield, N.Y., and shot and produced by Crystal Pix Inc. of Fairport, N.Y.

The “Abby for Apples” television and radio commercials are airing across the state now, and can also be viewed on NYAA’s YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/newyorkapples1. Watch for Wambach’s picture on in-store apple signage later this fall.