(Apologies for not including any women’s football ads in this post. But much like the pay levels, the quality level of women in sport advertising has been slow to advance, which is a damn shame. I’m watching the Cup. I hope you are, too.)
SKY SPORTS
Often, one wonders why a brand pays for the usage of an expensive song; you feel no connection to the ad or product. Back in 2012, to kick off the Premier League season, Sky (Ad agency: Brothers And Sisters, London) showed how to perfectly use a great Rolling Stones track to bring extra chills and emotion to a commercial.
NIKE
Even if, like me, you dislike Ronaldo passionately, this 2010 World Cup spot via Wieden & Kennedy is a fun minute (the Homer scene is hilarious).
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NIKE
For the 1996 Euro Cup. Warning: a bit violent. Ad agency: Wieden & Kennedy.
CRISTAL BEER
Many beer and soda brands have tried to attach themselves to football like lampreys, usually with shitty “epic” ads. Cristal, a beer brand popular in Chile, did it brilliantly. The :15 spots all bring a smile while establishing Cristal as the unofficial sponsor of “street football”—a smart strategy ahead of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. The above spot, “Goal Width,” and “The Throw-In,” below, are my two favorites. See all nine of the ads here. Ad agency: Y&R, Peru.
NIKE
In 2006, during the World Cup, Nike put up this Wayne Rooney billboard on the busy M4 into London. Religious folk were not please. Brandalism’s “Bill Posters” riffed on it below in 2011, during the August UK riots.
DUREX
Well, here’s one for the women, sort of.
If you're a football fan, you're familiar with the added time sign raised near the end of halftime and before fulltime. Well, Durex in Thailand used this medium to promote their Performa condoms—which feature the painkiller Benzocaine which theoretically desensitizes raging chubs. Pretty funny. Ad agency: McCann Erickson, Bangkok.