CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA - MAY 31: Christian Pulisic of United States celebrates after scoring his team's second goal during the international friendly match between United States and Senegal at Bank of America Stadium on May 31, 2026 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by Omar Vega/USSF/Getty Images)
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When the FIFA Men’s World Cup kicked off last week, it started an enormous moment for soccer in the United States.
Unlike the last time the country hosted the World Cup, its domestic league (Major League Soccer) is now fully operational and 30 years old. Soccer has also clearly grown in the U.S. since 1994, and both the men’s and women’s teams are (mostly) World Cup fixtures.
Still, despite MLS’s $2 billion media rights deal with Apple TV, the sport has not yet punched its way past the “Big Four” of the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL in the U.S.
The men’s team has also found a mixed bag of results over the last decade: More U.S. players than ever in Europe, yet the national team has not made it to the World Cup quarterfinals since 2002.
Since 2020, the U.S. has had five different managers (including interims), and will have a sixth following this World Cup when Mauricio Pochettino departs. In every match following the 2022 World Cup, the group has a record of 26 wins, 18 losses and nine draws, including an 11-9-2 mark since the start of last year – prior to Friday’s 4-1 win over Paraguay.
The lack of success and star power creates some major hurdles for the United States team to overcome. And it translates to World Cup advertiser challenges as well: How do you make the most of the U.S. hosting the World Cup when it has an almost non-existent chance of winning, and few recognizable faces to bank on?
U.S. forward Christian Pulisic has been front-and-center in ads for brands like Michelob Ultra, Degree and Hershey already, and is the face of the team. Yet, without a long list of signature moments for the national team or domestic league recognition (his entire senior career has been played in Germany, the United Kingdom and Italy), he’s not necessarily a household name.
Brands are learning, though, that they don’t have to rely solely on U.S. players to appeal to domestic audiences during the World Cup either.
“Advertisers shouldn’t underestimate the fandom for all these other teams that are in the World Cup, and they’re just people who live in America and were born in America, but celebrate their heritage of being Brazilian, or Colombian, or Argentinian, or Scottish, or English,” said Graham McKenna, CMO at XR: Extreme Reach.
“So you’re making ads for the global fan, and you have to kind of build your creative for fans of multiple countries all at once,” said McKenna. “It’s a super interesting and cool challenge, but it’s also kind of tricky to pull off.”
You can see this play out with various spots for this year’s World Cup.
BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA - SEPTEMBER 04: Lionel Messi of Argentina celebrates after scoring the team's third goal during the South American FIFA World Cup 2026 Qualifier match between Argentina and Venezuela at Estadio Más Monumental Antonio Vespucio Liberti on September 04, 2025 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. (Photo by Marcelo Endelli/Getty Images)
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Michelob’s “Superior Match” ad features players from the U.S., Argentinian and Mexican national teams (including global superstar Lionel Messi, who plays for MLS club Inter Miami CF).
Both Adidas and Nike use a litany of players and celebrities from around the world to promote the global nature of the game and event. But in doing so, the brands also maximize their ability to use the ads across borders, and with a variety of fanbases. Even if a viewer doesn’t recognize a few of the players, any soccer fan will likely see at least one face they know.
While soccer fans aren’t the biggest group in the U.S., the World Cup typically delivers impressive audiences. And this year’s event projects to be even larger with more teams than ever before, with most of the matches taking place domestically.
Still, rather than shy away from the temporary nature of some World Cup viewing, Lay’s has actually chosen to embrace that fact. The chip giant’s “Bandwagon” spot has comedian Will Ferrell – himself a passionate soccer fan in real life – driving around a literal bandwagon to get fans excited about the tournament.
Instead of playing up soccer’s exclusivity, using Ferrell (and co-stars Marshawn Lynch and David Beckham) for laughs makes the ad relatable, and removes barriers for newer soccer fans.
Data provided by iSpot shows the 60-second version of the ad is 11% more likeable than the norm for candy and snack ads this year, and 30% of survey respondents found the characters (celebrity spokespeople) to be the single best thing about the ad. It also scored highly for humor, and is the most likeable World Cup ad so far.
Spanish-language brands have been extremely active on YouTube around the World Cup already. Data from Tubular Labs shows that Spanish-language videos have accounted for almost 40% of brands’ World Cup views on YouTube so far.
In another trend to watch for this year, Telemundo also delivered 39.2% of World Cup-related TV ad reach during the 2022 event. Fox, meanwhile, accounted for 45.5% (all according to iSpot data).
That surge was at least partly fueled by Argentina’s win and Messi’s popularity. This year’s field features at least eight countries where Spanish is primarily spoken, including co-host Mexico and World Cup betting favorite Spain.
To that end, Telemundo had sold 90% of its World Cup ad inventory already as of December 2025. And as iSpot CEO Sean Muller points out, the World Cup is a unique opportunity for generating significant attention both on Telemundo and Fox.
He notes that the average World Cup match features less than half of the ad time than the Super Bowl.
“It’s no surprise that Telemundo nearly sold out, because (the World Cup) is going to have massive reach,” said Muller. “It’s like multiple Super Bowls, and not just one telecast, plus with arguably less clutter around ad breaks.”
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