Nike is heading to Hollywood for its 2026 World Cup brand campaign, where it will release a star-studded short film featuring some of the biggest names in music and entertainment, collaborate with many of the world’s greatest soccer players, and cause chaos in the back studio.
It’s a film that Helena Thornton, Nike’s vice president of brand management, describes as “blockbuster,” not just because of the effort put into it, but because of the talent, which includes LeBron James, Travis Scott, Kim Kardashian, Jason Sudeikis as Ted Lasso, Kate Scott, Channing Tatum, Yung Miko and Lisa, as well as soccer stars Cristiano Ronaldo, Kylian Mbappe, Erling Haaland and Vinny Jr. And the legends Eric Cantona, Ronaldinho, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Didier Drogba and Jorge Campos.
“We wanted to kind of play with the idea of Hollywood and blockbusters and all the business, while also recognizing that people today have much more access to athletes and singers and entertainers than ever before, and they also now expect to see a lot more realness and rawness to them, because they’re used to that,” Thornton says.
You can watch the “Rip The Script” spot below.
But the film is only the beginning of the story, as Nike realizes that conversations continue on places like TikTok, Instagram, X, Reddit and other platforms. That’s why Thornton says there are another 185 or so short films that will tell adjacent stories showcasing the roster of talent, and the film itself is full of Easter eggs meant to spark new conversations.
“There’s actually an unreleased track by a major artist, and this is a way to get people to input the content and have a different conversation,” she says. “You don’t have to sit there and watch a 30-second ad for a certain artist saying something. We’ve actually given you something that you can really go and discover and explore for yourself, and I think that’s really going to be the future of storytelling.”
Or other photos showing, for example, Erling Haaland and Channing Tatum (in full Haaland kit and ponytail) engaging in playful banter, which is part of the “roughness” that Nike is looking for.
“I think we’re probably one of the only brands that allows you to see both sides of a person,” Thornton says, “to see Erling Harland just like having fun and joking around with Channing Tatum is really something that most people wouldn’t get to see, but then you can relate that to him being in the most epic commercial group in the world, being the goalscorer of the glory that he famously just brought to the Premier League.”
Nike’s presence at the World Cup goes back decades, of course, but it was holding the tournament in North America, on its home soil, that helped the company make a comprehensive decision on its concept, which was directed by Dan Street and produced by Wieden + Kennedy.
“It’s harder and harder to get bigger when you have a very strong legacy in advertising the way Nike has for football, and I think we’re realizing at this moment that you actually have to take a different approach,” Thornton says. “The world and context, even just four years ago, is very different from today in terms of what the game means around the world.”
