Only a few days in and this World Cup has been so intense: the sweat, the blood, the tears… the headphones.
This year's World Cup has introduced us to a slew of mini-movie, adrenaline-pumping commercials that are dominating YouTube and television. The standout commercial, over 5 minutes of fist pumping that's headed toward 10 million views on YouTube, was for headphones, specifically Beats by Dre headphones. The commercial features a variety of soccer stars including Brazil’s Neymar Júnior and Uruguay’s Luis Suárez. But it’s also got hip hop artist Nicki Minaj, rapper Lil Wayne and tennis champion Serena Williams — I guess everyone is a soccer fan.
Budwiser — yes, the beer that John Oliver said FIFA forced into the World Cup stadium in Brazil — lauched a six-part mini-documentary series called "Rise As One." They've already rolled out five 10 minute-long stories about playing soccer around the world. Here's episode five (with over 5,000 views on YouTube) that looks at the Palestine Women's National team as they challenge a men's team:
oembed://http%3A//youtu.be/Y5Zp55tEAa4
Nike, as part of their Risk Everything campaign, has created an animated short that shows what happens when an evil scientist creates genetic clones of the World Cup soccer players. The animated short has already racked up over 3 million views on YouTube.
oembed://http%3A//youtu.be/afUUBvWBp3I
Nike also created another 4-minute commercial of teams playing "winner stays" for a field. As they compete, they imagine themselves as the world’s best soccer players among other fantasties.
oembed://http%3A//youtu.be/3XviR7esUvo
Adidas took a light-hearted, shorter approach with one minute of soccer legends destoying a house.
oembed://https%3A//www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DBDUIuzIwwTU
McDonald's entry is also short, but connected to an app unlocked by a purchase — a two-minute diversion of trick shots to get you to buy french fries.
Kia made a more conventional play, sending a message to American football players about soccer, er, football via Brazilian model Adriana Lima. Not surprisingly, the 47 second ad is going on 2 million YouTube plays.