The World Cup in Brazil is underway in some style, with goals galore, controversial refereeing decisions and unlikely upsets categorising the tournament’s early stages. All of the pre-tournament hype and tension has been blown away by a festival of free-flowing football, and the fans aren’t the only ones growing excited about the action on the pitches of Rio, Manaus and Fortaleza. Countless companies have attempted to ride the coattails of the World Cup with a series of clever print adverts, and we’ve picked some of our favourites to examine while the teams battle to progress through the knockout stages. Have you commemorated the 2014 World Cup with a print advertising campaign of your own this year?
Visa
One of the main sponsors of this year’s tournament, Visa’s World Cup ad campaigns are based around the theme ‘Welcome to Brazil’ – complete with a matching hashtag, naturally. A TV advert features some of the biggest names in football to have upset Brazilian fans at past tournaments, but the print campaign is far more interesting. It features fictional characters in the traditional team photograph position, including famous faces from The Simpsons and Star Wars – Mr Burns and C-3PO are the team captains! We love this advertising campaign because it puts some of our favourite fictional characters in a brand new environment. Not only does this provide memorable images, but it’s also a playful idea that captures the spirit of football – and there are plenty more fictional characters that Visa could use in future phases of the campaign.
Hyundai
Another official sponsor – Hyundai – has undertaken a huge advertising push to make the most of its connection with FIFA’s tournament. The company has commissioned Ahhaproject to provide a series of print adverts, and the results are varied and engaging. The designs integrate Hyundai’s design and technical expertise with different football-related elements. For example, they’ve shown a timeline of how football boots have changed throughout history, incorporating images of how their cars have evolved over the same timeframe. Another of the designs shows a footballer about to kick a ball, but we can see that his leg is made up of various vehicle components. View all the designs in Ahhaproject’s Hyundai portfolio.
Hello pasta
Hello is a brand of pasta – they’re sponsoring the Algerian team who’ve qualified for this year’s World Cup for the fourth time in their history. You probably haven’t heard of this brand, but we love the simplicity and charm of the clever advertising campaign they’ve put together. Essentially, they’ve used spaghetti to recreate the FIFA World Cup trophy. The designs are called Hello Rio – a suitable name as they were created to celebrate Algeria’s qualification.
These are just a few of the great print advertising campaigns to have sprung up around the World Cup. If you’d like to create a new print advertising campaign based around football, pay a visit to our design studio.
