By Liam Divilly
As football has become a bigger and bigger money-spinner since the turn of the century, everyone from individual players and sponsors to subscription broadcasters have seen a route to a bit of extra cash through TV advertisements. But compared to some of the brain-numbingly boring ads aired on TV trying to get you to buy a vacuum or a new wardrobe, football commercials often look like a Scorsese film.
Everyone’s trying to be iconic. One good ad could be remembered for 20 years, and therefore so is your brand. But as we’ll see, it’s all about getting the right player involved. Who are you more likely to listen to when being sold a product? Mark Noble or Zlatan Ibrahimovic?
Here’s our top five football ads ever made.
#5: Suarez’s Abitab Sponsorship
On the surface of it, Luis Suarez’s three (yes, three) separate bans for biting alone, not to mention his questionable diving record, intense gamesmanship and almost murderous competitiveness would make you think he’s a bad guy.
But anyone who knows the man well enough will tell you that off the pitch he’s as nice as they come. One company who recognised this was Uruguayan credit card makers Abitab, using this 60 second advert in 2013 to not just promote their brand name but make light of Suarez’s mis-portrayal. Surprisingly, Luis went along with it, and so was born the most humourous entry in our list.
#4: BT Sport’s 15/16 Champions League Promo
After years of Sky and ITV dominance, BT Sport surprised everybody in 2015 when they managed to acquire the exclusive rights for all Champions League and Europa League football, robbing their competitors of possibly their biggest asset.
To celebrate, BT Sport threw a get together.
Most football ads feature two, three, maybe four players. But instead, BT spent any remaining money they hadn’t spent on the Champions League rights and invited around basically every player to have played professional football in the last 15 years.
Proof that if you stick enough explosions and top-level footballers in one ad, it’s quite hard to fail.
#3: Nike – Take it to the Next Level
If this was released today, it would be impressive. Never mind twelve years ago.
As we’ll see again with our top two entries, a lot depends on how well everything is edited together with sports ads, in other words, how real does it feel? When it comes to this 2008 Nike promo, the answer is very. So much so, that at times during the video you start to wonder were all these first-person POV shots taken from real games.
They weren’t, further adding to the editing masterclass this ad is, as the viewer gets to experience the journey from Non-League to the Nou Camp through the eyes of an up and coming star. It’s incredible how authentic the whole thing feels as the camera dribbles its way through Barcelona’s defence and experiences the perks of a professional footballer’s lifestyle.
Cesc Fabregas, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Cristiano Ronaldo, Andres Iniesta, Ronaldinho and Wesley Sneijder are just some of the names squeezed into the three minute production, while the added soundtrack (Don’t Speak by Eagles of Death Metal) makes this ad the one we’d most want to watch in a surround-sound cinema.
#2: Sky Sports’ Premier League Promo 17/18
If you travelled back in time and showed this ad to someone in the 1940’s, their head would probably explode.
The way Henry is integrated so seamlessly and casually strides through one moment of Premier League history to another is editing of the absolute highest standard.
Almost everything is perfect, Henry’s monologue, his perplexed look as Yeboah smashes the ball past him, his awkward attempt to ignore Roy Keane’s and Patrick Viera’s shouting match, his breach of the fourth wall.
Combined that with Frank Sinatra’s ‘That’s Life’ and this was the perfect promo for Sky Sports to remind competitors that they still had dominance over Premier League rights heading into the 2017/18 season, and we’re confident a few more people may have been signing up for a subscription during the month this as aired.
#1: Adidas 2006 World Cup: Jose +10
Many directors have tried the whole ‘professionals playing in an amateur setting’ trick, but no one has ever replicated the brilliance of Adidas’ 2006 effort.
Set on a dusty yard in an anonymous South American city, Jose and Pedro decide to start a game of football out of boredom and begin selecting their dream teams. One by one, their picks emerge from street corners and doorways, lining out for an unlikely fantasy match under the beating Latin American sun.
The kids’ dialogue being done through Spanish automatically makes everything cooler and the inclusion of a young Franz Beckenbauer and Michel Platini boggles the mind as to how they were edited in, despite both being over fifty years of age at the time. The nostalgia levels are through the roof when you look at the other names making an appearance. Khan, Zidane, Lampard, Kaka, Beckham. Basically name anyone who was any good in between the year 2000 and 2006, and they probably featured in Jose +10.
But the big question is: If you could have the choice of any football player from history as your number one pick, why in the world would you go for Djibril Cisse?
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