Nike Elevates Football to Cinematic Spectacle With Rip the Script Campaign

KFC brings chickens to the field. Source: YouTube.

Here are some of the ads tapping into football fever:

Nike leads with spectacle. Its Rip the Script campaign which turns football into a cinematic action packed universe, blending the sport stars with global entertainment figures in a way that keeps the spirit of the Nike brand of being true to yourself.

Coca-Cola, by contrast, has retreated from spectacle into sentiment. Its Feel It All campaign focuses on the emotion of fandom: anticipation, disappointment, celebration and ritual.

Even fast-food brands are in on the action. KFC’s Best Legs campaign sidesteps football spectacle in favour of humour and product association by letting chickens take over training.

Uber Eats has joined the World Cup marketing scramble with a global campaign fronted by Gordon Ramsay, turning football’s biggest tournament into a high-pressure kitchen of its own. The work titles Who Could Cook At A Time Like This? leans into Ramsay’s trademark intensity to dramatise the idea of cooking under pressure.

Closer to home, DStv and SuperSport go straight for humour. Their Everything Can Wait advert argues that the World Cup is one of the few cultural events still powerful enough to override daily life and routine. The fun comes through in the execution, a weary continent dozing off everywhere from sofas to workplaces, as 24-hour access to matches turns football into a vigil.

Samsung and Thierry Henry's World Cup narrative is not about football at all, but about the screen itself. By positioning its televisions as the definitive way to experience the tournament, it turns the broadcast medium into the message that the World Cup is a technological showcase as much as a sporting one.