The best World Cup ads this year got the format right and the casting wrong
The 2026 World Cup has been a gift to brands: a rare stretch when people were watching the same thing together and reacting in real time. Now, as the tournament heads into its final match, the question is how well they used all that attention.
Katharine Offinger, Orchestra’s Head of Channels, has been tracking the ad landscape throughout the tournament. Her read is that the strongest work got the format right and the casting wrong.
“Brands have actually taken creative risks during the 2026 World Cup,” Katharine says. “LEGO built a trophy on camera, Axe leaned into fan chaos, McDonald's ran hidden-camera stunts. The formats are looser, funnier, more willing to be weird than past cycles.”
But the casting, in her view, tells a different story. She pointed out that across a 39-day tournament with dozens of competing campaigns, the same two faces kept resurfacing: Argentina’s Lionel Messi and former England captain David Beckham. Messi appeared in ads for Dick's Sporting Goods, LEGO, Michelob Ultra and Hard Rock Café; and Beckham for Home Depot, Lenovo, McDonald's, Pepsi and Stella Artois.
“Brands nailed the format but still didn't trust anyone but Messi and Beckham to be the face of it,” Katharine says. “And that's why even the good work started to blur together.”
Understand the culture
The pressure to show up well in these kinds of major sports events is only rising. Peter Drummond, Orchestra’s Head of Sports, sees the tournament as part of a broader shift in how brands think about live sports.
“Sports can still gather people in a way few other cultural moments can,” Peter says. “That is incredibly valuable for brands as audiences splinter everywhere else. But the smartest sports marketing starts with the fan experience.”
That means brands have to pay attention to the culture forming around the game, not just where their logo shows up.
This World Cup offered plenty of proof. In Boston, Scotland fans turned the city into a second home, bringing enough charm (and bagpipes) to make the whole thing feel like a civic love story. Then ranch dressing became an unlikely tournament subplot, with international fans falling hard for the tangy condiment. Even the TSA got in on the discourse, reminding travelers that ranch does, in fact, count as a liquid for carry-on purposes.
“These moments are organic and unscripted, which makes them instantly more memorable than anything with a paid spokesperson attached,” Katharine says. “The smartest brands are the ones fast enough to join the moment.”
Hidden Valley did exactly that, moving quickly with ranch sampling in host cities. It was a small move, but exactly the kind that makes a brand feel present instead of tacked on.
Prepare for the unpredictable
That may be the clearest takeaway from the tournament. A media plan can get a brand into the event, and a celebrity can make people look. But those alone are unlikely to break through.
Katharine puts it simply: “This tournament has rewarded creative confidence in format. The next unlock is having the confidence to let real people, not just marquee names, carry the story.”
For brands looking at the next big sports stage, the lesson is to avoid planning out the entire conversation before fans have the chance to shape it. You need to leave enough room for the things no one predicted, because those are often the things that keep people talking.
And yes, sometimes that includes, against all odds, ranch dressing.
