Football. Brands. And Englishness. Complicated Pride in the World Cup of Advertising.

David Beckham, Peter Crouch, Danny Dyer, Erling Haaland, Cole Palmer, Central Cee, Channing Tatum, Steve Carell, Bad Bunny and Kim Kardashian.

Can only mean one thing: a Stag Do you won't come home from, or the Fifa World Cup of advertising.

The World Cup is never free from politics or controversy, however much Fifa President Infantino tells us to 'chill' and 'relax' at his pre-tournament press conference. Fair enough, except Infantino also gave Donald Trump the inaugural Football Unites the World Peace Prize, partly for his pursuit of peace in the Middle East, a region the US went on to bomb months later. Pinch of salt, then.

Add the backdrop: war, political division, border and immigration 'issues'. Then, within the first few games, a VAR decision so lacking transparency that Gary Neville called Fifa 'a dictatorship'.

The mens Football World Cup. Nothing like it. And that's why we love it.

And businesses and brands love it too.

Adidas has been Fifa's official World Cup partner since 1970. Hundreds of millions in rights fees.

In 2010, Nike generated nearly twice the share of online buzz that Adidas did, without spending a penny on official sponsorship. By 2018, over half of consumers thought Nike was the official sponsor.

Fast-forward to 2026, and it's a content game.

Adidas with Bellingham, Yamal, Messi, Zidane, Beckham.

Nike have Ronaldo, Mbappé, Haaland, LeBron, Kardashian and Travis Scott.

Nike, over 70 million views in six days. Adidas, over 7 million in a month.

Views are vanity over sanity, but it feels like the same story, different tournament.

Nike doesn't own the rights. They own the feeling.

The World Cup gives brands the same creative licence as Christmas or the Super Bowl: a moment big enough to take a decent kick at it. Nike and Adidas both took it, and the return created mass talkability and buzz.

Lots of brands seek to take advantage of the cultural moment and two-foot-slide-tackle their way into the conversation and (results pending) the mood of a Nation.

Plenty of brands take the safe route. Cast players who are universally ‘liked’…maybe a comedian…set against copy vague enough to offend no one. 'Match ready.' ‘Get ready for the big match.’ ‘It’s game time’. Copy that says little about the Brand and little about football. And at all costs avoid, the rivalries, over-passionate fans, the heartbreak, the superstitions, the years of hurt. The bits that aren't safe (but are also the whole point).

The brands that win this tournament won't necessarily be the ones with the biggest spend or the official agreements. Or those with an ex-footballer holding a product.

The brands that win will be the ones that understand what football actually means to people and meet them there.

Of course, Paddy Power is the Golden Boot winner of this, season after season. Paddy continues to know the inner workings of culture, sport and 'banter', and weaves this into their excellent work.

But look outside the expected brand players, and the numerous campaigns featuring David Beckham, and you'll find work with a deeper, more au courant cultural and creative edge, using the World Cup as a moment to talk about something far deeper: identity, anxiety, nostalgia and pride.

Nike X2 Collection

Nike, an expected player but going beyond the hero content.

Nike’s partnered with seven countries, seven collaborators and seven community organisations. Nike x Palace is the English-leaning execution. A Palace streetwear take on  Sports kit that honours the English national team.

One shirt carries a stained-glass St George motif. Jarring at first, yet powerful. This is England now. Rendering St George as ecclesiastical stained glass, beautiful, old, reverent, recodes "English" as something reclaimed and artful, rather than, at its worst, tribal aggression.

Walking down the street recently, I was asked by a confident and yet equally annoying street interviewer, 'How would you describe supporting the England football team?' ‘Complicated pride,' I replied.

Irn-Bru, "Made in Scotland from Girders”

Grayson Perry once described Englishness as 'a series of clichés linked by motorways’.

Irn-Bru has used the clichés of Scottishness to an advantage.

John McGinn, Susan Boyle, Alex Kapranos from Franz Ferdinand, Paul Black, May Miller and dozens of real Scots.

What's doing the work is specificity stacked on specificity, or to put it another way, Scottishness stacked on Scottishness. 'Made in Scotland from Girders' is already a forty-plus-year-old distinctive asset, so reviving it isn't nostalgia for nostalgia's sake, it's compound interest on a brand truth that was true before many in the audience were born.

There's a truth in this that English football coverage rarely faces and Scottish football coverage can't avoid: when you haven't won anything, the emotional truth isn't triumph, it's the passion and belief to show up anyway.

And after one game, one win and Scotland are top of their group, so no indignity needed.

EE, "Yes Boys"

A continuation of EE's wider campaign, and a fantastic example of how to further push an existing creative into a culturally relevant moment. Something many brands don't do, or for some reason feel they can't.

‘Yes Boys’ is an ad that has football in it. Football, during a World Cup. But it has little to do with football, and everything to do with what's happening to teenagers online.

The 'Born Slippy' soundtrack is clever, and continues the musical theme from earlier TV creatives. The track is steeped in a very specific strand of '90s British male culture: club and festival energy, Trainspotting cues, lairy, booze, druggie hedonism. Using it under a campaign about emotional literacy isn't ironic. Taking the same cultural register, the one that's traditionally been hostile to vulnerability, and giving it a repurpose to carry a message about showing up for boys emotionally. Smart. Really smart.

Given the subject, and its clear links to the ongoing mental health crisis we have in the UK, and the subtext highlighted in Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere, you could call this brave and bold. But it's executed so brilliantly it just feels like an honest, true picture of where we are as a society.

Showing up runs through all three of these. Palace reclaiming England rather than circumnavigating it. Irn-Bru and Scottish fans turning up regardless of their chances. EE's coaches showing up for boys who need someone to. None of it needed the World Cup to be true. The tournament just gave each of them a country paying close enough attention to say the message clearly and be heard.

I've supported England long enough to know the script. The build-up. The belief. The final walk to the penalty spot. The following years of hurt.

For a few weeks this summer, millions of us will sit a little closer to the telly than usual, hoping that, with this men's team, this tournament might be different.

But whatever happens, we show up. Win, or lose, here's hoping it gives the country a few weeks of feeling something together. Complicated pride. But pride.