If you work anywhere near what we lovingly call the “creative economy”, it might feel like 100% of your feed was just in Cannes for the annual “Festival of Creativity”. However, there’s a much larger event in the creative economy that’s currently happening across the globe. That festival is the World Cup, arguably the biggest event in media, entertainment, advertising - and, incidentally, sports. This is especially true this year, when the tournament is taking place in the world’s most commercialized sports market. Much hand wringing was done before this world cup: the price of the tickets, the price of the hotels, the wild and overt corruption, the AMERICA-ness of it all (plus the geopolitical dramas, which we won’t get into) - but as it turns out, if you can successfully host a world cup in an autocratic country with zero tourism infrastructure, you can certainly successfully host it in a country with many large, existing stadiums, plentiful beer, and big-ass gas stations (more on all of these, later). 

We thought about doing some sort of business breakdown of the World Cup, but then we realized this newsletter was going to go out on a holiday week after Cannes. So instead, here are our highly subjective, very unofficial winners and losers of the creative economy so far of this world cup - told, of course, from our America-centric POV. 

Winner: the team at Fox (production edition) 

Morgan: In my eyes, Fox has done a pretty good job this world cup. The graphics package is decent, and the casting for their main host panel, while drawing some questions, at least has people talking. Much has been said about the Thierry Henry / Zlatan / Lalas dynamic (everything you need to read about this is here), not nearly enough has been said about Clint Dempsey’s wonderful accent. Get this man a regular spot on NBC’s EPL show, immediately. 

Loser: the team at Fox (American Greed / hydration breaks edition) 

Malcolm: Authenticity is key to any good advertising and hydration breaks are not authentic at all. They’re terrible, people hate them, make them go away

Loser: The team at Fox (Frankenstein conglomerate edition) 

Morgan: Nothing reminds you faster of the weird makeup of the Fox stubco than cutting from Thierry Henry and Zlatan to an ad break featuring multiple plugs for the Fox News book club or Steve Doocy shilling a wine club. Synergy!

Winner: Thierry Henry

Malcolm: I cannot stress enough: he is still a god among mortals, still handsome, still well spoken, still only second to Ronaldo (R9 not cristiano you numpties) and still someone whose likeness graced my walls as a child (good luck if he was wearing gloves). While his stint in MLS may have helped a little bit with his brand awareness, this World Cup is putting him front and center of an American audience–he even got a street named after him in NYC. American SOCCCCERRRR fans are generally more affluent and I assume he will grow his brand deals over here with the increased exposure. Maybe, like the office, we will even get a less good American revamp of vavavoom.

Loser: whoever is coloring in Zlatan’s hairline

Morgan: you can’t convince me this isn’t getting some assistance 

Malcolm: I would have taken aim at his footwear, but the hair is a lot.

Loser: Everyone who hired David Beckham for their advertisements (alt: Winner: David Beckham’s Agent) 

Morgan: We get it: in a country where the majority of people wouldn’t know Rivaldo from Ronaldo from Romario, we understand every ad person’s instinct to reach for David Beckham to be the handsome and recognized face of their world cup campaign. But when people start to maintain a running thread of how many ads he’s in (5 at last count), it starts to be a little less effective. Particularly when Thierry Henry was sitting right there—twice as handsome and now the face of thoughtful postgame analysis for American audiences. (Don Julio had the vision)

Malcolm: Beckham has been all in on “Brand Beckham” since he decided to go on a date with Posh Spice. His brand has taken a bit of a hit through some family drama, but his wallet has risen with the tide of Messi mania in Miami. This world cup feels like the absolute culmination of a lifetime of effort. 

Winner: The creative team at Lowes

Morgan: Messi is the other choice for American brands with Big Talent budgets for this world cup. Messi does a lot of amazing things on the pitch, but still has yet to prove his strengths in doing…really anything off of it (he’s a quiet man who still strongly prefers Spanish). We’ve already all seen the Michelob ultra ads with him playing on the beach. So shoutout the creative team behind the Lowes ads, where he does literally nothing other than…walk onto a pitch. Truly brilliant workaround. 

Winner: Whoever Made that “Everything can happen” FIFA ad

Morgan: Yeah I cried the first time I watched it (there was beer involved) 

Winner: America, the concept (infrastructure edition) 

Morgan: have you ever googled the list of the top capacity stadiums in America, and then felt a twinge of national pride? I (now) have. Most countries have to invest in massive infrastructure builds to host the world cup; we could host the entire thing at SEC schools. 

Winner: America, the concept (brand/people edition) 

Morgan: The long pans over supermarket aisles stuffed with pop tart and oreo variations, the tiktoks gushing over Cheesecake Factory, the awe-filled reviews of Buc-ees: while more upmarket brands have spent millions looking to position themselves amongst America’s more elite soccer-consuming audience (see David Beckham, above), the real winners have been the mass market brands starring in the endless social content coming from the tourists discovering America’s deep love of partially hydrogenated corn syrup and really, really big stores. You can’t buy that kind of wonder and delight. 

Malcolm: Freddy’s journey through the south, Japanese fans eating BBQ, and numerous other stories of europeans being surprised by the hospitality and general friendly nature of americans has gone a long way to improving the reputation of America abroad. I didn’t know ranch dressing didn’t exist elsewhere, but it’s fun to experience the social media inverse of the “Euro Summer” posts that usually flood the feed this time of year. 

Winner: Scotland’s brand via the Tartan army

Malcolm: While Scotland’s not actually on fire, and no defense is actually terrified of John McGinn, the Tartan Army once again proved that the Scots are the world’s biggest drinkers, are generally down to party (yes I like to boogie and no scotland no party) and are a great PR tool. After the 2022 Euros, German tourism to Scotland spiked. Online searches have doubled for visitscotland.com during this tournament. I am sure you will see the Boston to Edinburgh direct flight booking up.

Winner: Sports bars (the real experiential activations)

Morgan: While the massive tourism boom promised by the FIFA overlords has not materialized for many reasons (read: more greed), our casual observation is that sports bars are raking it in at the moment. Host city bars are running out of beer; our local bar in downtown NYC told us that AB Inbev won’t deliver them new kegs because they’re “not a big enough account” (loser: AB Inbev’s New York distributor for not properly anticipating the demand between the Knicks run and the world cup). 

Loser: ESPN

Malcolm: For years ESPN had the rights to world cup and honestly did a great job (ZERO ALEXEI LALAS). However, their coverage of the cup has been pretty mediocre and feels a bit like a toddler throwing their toys. Can someone please get their analysts and upgraded zoom subscription? Pat McCafee is the only non soccer guy (who was a soccer guy growing up) that has any clue. Feels like the “world wide leader in sports” needs to up their game.

Malcolm: This is based on my lifetime, World Cup Performance alone–hence no Maldini or Maradona (how the world could have been different without his ankle injury) though I was also 1 so some older fans may disagree.