World Cup fever

Posted By Matt Ross
You can’t miss it can you? Even if you wanted to. It’s coming at you from every angle. Even my Nan’s Agatha Christie’s Poirot cannot escape the World Cup themed adverts.


Outside our offices we have the largest ever billboard towering over the West Cromwell Road (picture). A Mount Rushmore pastiche, featuring the faces of Rooney, Milner, Walcott and Ferdinand staring down the passing traffic. The headline: Play to be Remembered. Write the future. (The people who chose the players probably wished they could.) Needless to say these were going up before the World Cup teams were chosen, and those in the know mused about the wisdom of committing to idolise players who may not be selected. Still, this aside, the idea of freezing those decisive moments and immortalising them in stone and bronze symbolises everything about the idolisation today’s footballers experience.

Nike has a relevant product to promote, and does so with a grandiose three minute special T.V. ad (notice how there is no shame in using competitors' branded kit throughout). The idea of writing history today may not be new, but the execution of these printed variations on the theme show how effectively an idea can cross both channels and oceans.


The campaign developed in Amsterdam by Wieden+Kennedy will no doubt go on to win many awards, and let's hope that Rooney does become Sir Wayne (although personally I’d rather call my boy Frank) as England move on to triumph also.

But you also have the bad. Peter Crouch isn’t persuading me to buy any more Pringles El Tel’s crooning makes me less likely to buy the Sun. John Barnes embarrassingly rapping in the park for Mars . But webuyanycar.com wins my vote for the most brazen, unashamedly pointless use of a football in an advert ever.

And finally, here is proof that not all gems have to be big and brash to be effective. The strength of an idea can still be relatively cheap to pursue. Like this offering from the Times.



Humorous (when you consider the fragility of our footballers), playful and flexible. Letting you know exactly where they want to meet you for a conversation. I’ll be picking up my copy of the Times each morning. I love it! Post your own ideas of the good, bad and downright ugly World Cup ads below.