The best World Cup ads

The World Cup in Russia is fully underway and we’ve already seen some cracking games with cracking TV spots to carry viewers through halftime. Much like ads during the Superbowl, World Cup ad spots are treasured among advertisers due to their high reach (3.2 billion people watched the 2014 Brazil World Cup) and their ability to ride off group identity - a hook which Nike have mastered over the past two decades.

Bringing people together around ‘the beautiful game’ is not the only outcome brands can look forward to when airing their wares on TV to millions and billions. The chance to create a memorable World Cup campaign like Coca-Cola’s collab with Canadian-Somali artist K’naan or Pepsi’s tongue-in-cheek nod to German culture ahead of the 2006 tournament is too good to miss and some brands have taken the opportunity brilliantly.

Here are the 5 best ad spots which aired in the run up to or during World Cup broadcasts.

Nike and Airport football

Even multi-millionaire professional footballers have to wait in airports and Nike’s ad spot for the 1998 World Cup imagined what they might get up to. In the ad, Brazil’s then-star players Ronaldo, Cafu, Roberto Carlos and others transform the airport from a regimented travel hub to a samba playground, dribbling along moving walkways, shooting through luggage scanners and running in front of taxiing aircraft (much to Eric Cantona’s dismay). The ad ends with Ronaldo, world’s best footballer for two consecutive years prior, seeing his shot rattle off the woodwork - or, rather, the queue barrier post.

Adidas and Footballitis

Football is infectious for fans, players, team staff and of course marketers and Adidas’ 2002 ad showed how severe the symptoms can get. The ad is set in a research institute filled with doctors, referees, players and even goal-shooting dogs participating in studies to establish the facts behind the condition called Footballitis. From Zinedine Zidane demonstrating how he can’t stop juggling, to a sleeping Fabien Barthez punching a ball, to a group of dachshunds playing a mini match, the ad remains hilarious, memorable and nostalgic to those who have seen another generation of great footballers move into retirement.

Coca-Cola and common rivals

As I mentioned earlier, football and World Cups are a great way to bring people together - across politics, gender, race and class, celebrating a goal with fellow supporters is a rush. Coca-Cola took it a step further for this ad spot for the 2006 World Cup in Germany and animated a hilarious sequence of common rivals celebrating a goal. A lumberjack and a tree, a lab rat and a scientist, a live chicken and a chef, a cactus and a balloon and other characters who would usually keep their distance from one another listen intently to the build-up to a goal. The pairs lock in embrace when the radio announcer cries GOOOOAAAALLL and Coca-Cola reminds viewers that despite our differences, football can bring us together. The ad ends spectacularly with a potentially awkward situation resolved through celebrating football.

Adidas and Jose

Backyard football is where legends are born. Every player to make the top flight began their careers on the dust, sand, asphalt and grass of their neighbourhoods and Adidas knows this. Combining this with every footballing child’s dream of playing alongside the giants of the game, Adidas aired Jose+10. Jose and his friend turn their dreary day off into a brilliant, dusty friendly with footballers who notoriously wore Adidas boots - think Beckham, Zidane, Cisse, Kaka, Kahn and dozens more. When Jose’s mother calls him in for tea after a few shots and dribbles, you can’t help but wish the clever footwork can go on and on.

Nike and Winner Stays On

Much like Jose’s backyard kickabout with famous Adidas-wearing players, the Winner Stays On spot on air around the 2014 World Cup brought Nike-wearing players to a communal pitch in England. The teenage characters start off a game and announce the players they are emulating, immediately turning overconfident sixth form lads into Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar Jr, Rooney, Zlatan and too many other stars to name. Even Marvel Comics’ The Hulk makes an appearance as the communal pitch miraculously becomes a 50,00-seater stadium. The ad is the perfect blueprint for a good football ad: youthful imagination, comedy and a host of the world’s best players.