Budweiser doesn't seem to be treating the NWSL as a charity or as a temporary revenue boost. (Photo by Brad Smith/ISI Photos/Getty Images).

Megan Rapinoe has participated in her share of campaigns to market the National Women's Soccer League. Over the years, she's been asked repeatedly to look into a camera and talk about being a role model to little girls and, frankly, she's a bit tired of it.

“I never want to be featured in a marketing product where the very first thing said about me is that I am a role model because I should already be that. I already am that,” Rapinoe told Yahoo Sports last month. “Kids should already be looking up to us because we play for national team.

"You never see LeBron James purely positioned as inspiring young boys. No s--- he’s inspiring young boys. He’s f---ing LeBron James. It’s like, of course! So why are we limiting ourselves that way?”

That has been the identity crisis in which the NWSL has found itself over its seven years of existence.

On one hand, clubs like the Portland Thorns have proven that beer-drinking, heckle-slinging adults can provide a fervent fan base and buzzing atmosphere to make a women's team successful. The Thorns have an average attendance higher than many MLS, NBA and NHL teams, largely because adults are crazy about them.

Those fans tend to be more work to find than the little girls who play soccer, though. For immediate results, clubs can target local youth teams and know that they will sell at least some tickets. That can be enticing for clubs that operate under a sense of urgency and constantly sit on the precipice of losing money, unlike the Thorns, who have been profitable since the team's debut in Portland.

But as the NWSL looks to shift from surviving to thriving — from NWSL 1.0 to NWSL 2.0 — the target fan base will need to change. That ideal target fan will perhaps need to look a bit more like Rapinoe.

“I want a marketing campaign that sells me the product,” Rapinoe said. “Am I going to buy the product? I’m 34, I have my own money, I don’t have kids, I love sports, I’m into fashion and culture. I’m not buying a product that’s like, ‘Little girls, blah blah blah.’

“Not that being a role model is not important — we do that work every day and we take it seriously. But we have to think about, as teams and as the league, what are we marketing this product as? Is it just ‘Wow, this is super inspiring for little girls?’ Well, no s---, this is the highest level they can get to — we don’t need to market it to them.”

There may be a shift on the horizon, thanks in part to Budweiser, the beer that is synonymous with America's most popular sports. With help from U.S. Soccer and Soccer United Marketing, who helped broker the deal, Budweiser signed a multi-year sponsorship with the NWSL as the league's biggest sponsor to date.

Beer, of course, is for adults. But Budweiser's campaign is less of the soft and fuzzy approach the NWSL has seen in the past. Budweiser's current campaign is a well-executed call-out, telling brands who claim they care about female empowerment to put their money where their corporate mouths are.

View photos Megan Rapinoe consumes fast food (above) and and sports a watch (below) as part of Budweiser's tongue-in-cheek ad campaign promoting the NWSL. (Via Budweiser) More

View photos Megan Rapinoe consumes fast food and and sports a watch as part of Budweiser's tongue-in-cheek ad campaign promoting the NWSL. (Via Budweiser) More

The tongue-in-cheek campaign features Rapinoe enjoying products from “future official sponsors” of the NWSL – eating generic hamburger that could be a fast food chain sponsor or sporting a generic watch that could become the “official timepiece of the NWSL.” Fans are invited to pre-pledge their support for any NWSL sponsors that come in.