The World Cup starts this week and, while most of the year I refrain from posting about football, it would be impossible to get through the next month without a fix. As a pessimistic English fan full of disappointment, my memories of World Cups mainly consist of a sleepless night after that Beckham kick on Diego Simeone in 1998, David Seaman's ponytail, and the teenage tears that accompanied losing to the Portuguese on penalties in 2006.
England aside, one of the main things to get excited about during a World Cup year is the string of football-inspired TV commercials/adverts which hit our screens, usually resulting in the delirium which can only be tempered by slow, heat-affected international football. Nike (sounds like 'spiky' if you read the news) are the undisputed kings of football endorsement and have this year gone with a 'Winner Stays On' campaign, bringing in the ever-popular first person player motif to show off Ronaldo, Zlatan and... erm, Tim Howard.
Normally, you would have Adidas as Nike's main competitor but they rarely reach the heights Nike do when it comes to football commercials. In fact, it is actually an entry out of the stands, Beats By Dre, who have rushed the barrier and ended up on the pitch to be this year's main opposition.
If Ronaldo is Europe's poster boy, then Beats By Dre have trumped that and gone with the darling of the home nation, Brazil's Neymar. The five-minute advert is essentially a grandiose music video with more celebrity appearances than Perez Hilton's news feed (a Perez Hilton reference in a football piece? Get outta here!) In all seriousness though, what do Lil' Wayne and Serena Williams' acrylics have to do with the World Cup?
Also cameoing in the Beats By Dre campaign is Thierry Henry, who could potentially lay claim to the individual crown for Services to the TV football Ad Industry. Henry was number one for Nike in the mid-noughties and was the star of one of the most enduring commercials from a non-World Cup year, in the 'Home Game' campaign.
Adidas have tried something similar ahead of this World Cup, pitting 'galacticos' Zidane and Beckham in a game at Beckingham Palace against Lucas Moura and a player unlikely to ever grace the World Cup, Gareth Bale. Smooth work, Adidas...
Heading back to Nike though, and their track record only gets stronger the further you head back towards the nineties. The 1998 World Cup was all about the original Ronaldo, and he featured heavily in the beautifully made 'Airport' advert which saw the eventual runners up, Brazil, take advantage of pre-9/11 airport security to board the plane for France 1998 while displaying some samba flair.
With Adidas-sponsored France winning in 1998, Nike were a lot happier four years later when Brazil got their hands on the trophy, beating Germany in Japan. And their ad for the year was one most will remember as one of the best of all time. Not just content with Ronaldo and Henry, Nike shelled out to put 24 of the world's greatest (Figo, Ronaldinho, Totti etc.) into a secret offshore tournament, directed by Monty Python actor, Terry Gilliam.
What made this campaign special was that that there were so many different cuts of it and, at a time when the Internet was becoming more accessible, Nike hosted the various edits online. But what places this amongst the pantheon of all-time great football ads is the presence of the King, Eric Cantona, as the referee or, more appropriately, Godfather. If you want to create a great football-related ad, Cantona is the ingredient which makes everything taste sweeter. As this Kronenbourg advert - which was fittingly banned by the Advertising Standards Authority - will attest.
While World Cup years are generally the golden moments for football ads, it's somewhat ironic that the screen's biggest star never actually appeared in a World Cup - blame France's ineptitude in the early nineties and the emergence of Zinedine Zidane thereafter. And, befitting the advert's star, the greatest ever football ad was not a actually a World Cup one. No, that spot goes to King Eric and Nike's 'Good vs. Evil' campaign.
Disagree with my picks? Why not post your favourites below? 'Au revoir'.
P.S. If you've not had enough yet, check out this awful advert for Danish bacon, featuring a suitably embarrassed Peter Schmeichel. Even the greats have their price...
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