The 2026 FIFA World Cup kicks off in the United States, Canada, and Mexico in June, the first time the tournament has returned to North America since 1994. Lay’s, an official sponsor of the competition, is running two parallel campaigns targeting two distinct audiences: the 90-market global fanbase who already know the game, and the American newcomers who are about to discover it.
“No Lay’s, No Game”: The Global Campaign
The fourth year of Lay’s long-running global platform returned in May 2026 with its biggest cast yet. The “Epic Watch Party” film, created by 72andSunny LA, features Alexia Putellas, Lionel Messi, David Beckham, Thierry Henry, and comedian Steve Carell. The premise is a supermarket ambush. The football icons, largely unrecognised by other shoppers, surprise regular customers and invite them to watch a match together.
The casting of Carell alongside four of the sport’s most recognisable names is the campaign’s primary tonal signal. The film is not about football excellence. It is about the social experience of watching it. Beckham, Messi, Putellas, and Henry are the most decorated names in the game. Carell is their foil, the civilian stand-in for the fan who would be equally overwhelmed and equally invited. The combination converts an elite athlete endorsement into a communal warmth play.
The campaign extends beyond the TV spot through one of Lay’s largest social activations to date. A dedicated Epic Watch Party channel on WhatsApp features live reactions, voice notes, and behind-the-scenes content from all five campaign figures throughout the tournament. The channel brings the watch party format into the messaging platform where a significant portion of global football conversation already happens, particularly across APAC, Latin America, and the Middle East. Lay’s CMO of International Foods, Jonnie Cahill described the effort as an invitation to passionate supporters and casual fans alike to join the moment with Lay’s in hand.
“Bandwagon”: The U.S. Campaign
The second campaign runs exclusively in the United States and targets a completely different entry point into the World Cup. “Bandwagon” reframes one of football culture’s most frequently used insults as a welcome. In sporting culture, a bandwagon fan is someone who supports a team only when it is winning, joining the moment without having earned the fandom. For football in America specifically, where the sport has lower cultural penetration than in most of the other 47 host nations, the term describes a large portion of the potential World Cup audience.
Lay’s U.S. CMO Hernán Tantardini described the strategic position directly: fandom does not need to be earned. It can be shared. The campaign does not ask American newcomers to prove their credentials before joining. It tells them the bandwagon is exactly where they should be, and Lay’s is on it with them. Whether you call the sport soccer or football is treated as irrelevant. Whether you have watched it your whole life or picked it up last week is irrelevant. The World Cup is a shared moment and the campaign exists to lower the barrier of entry for the audience most likely to watch it for the first time in 2026.
Why Two Campaigns Instead of One
The dual-campaign structure reflects a genuine strategic tension that no single piece of creative could resolve. The global “No Lay’s, No Game” platform has been running for four years across 90 markets with elite athlete talent. Its equity is built on football passion and communal ritual. Applying that framework to an American audience that does not yet have that relationship with the sport would read as aspirational at best and alienating at worst.
“Bandwagon” solves the American entry problem without diluting the global platform. The two campaigns run simultaneously, reaching different audiences with different emotional starting points, but converging on the same commercial message: football is a shared moment, and it is better with Lay’s.
Jonnie Cahill summarised the combined logic for the brand: Lay’s is an official sponsor of the FIFA World Cup 2026, and both campaigns reflect how the brand is inviting every kind of fan, from lifelong supporters to first-time viewers, into the same experience.
Campaign Name: “No Lay’s, No Game” / Epic Watch Party / “Bandwagon”
Agency Name: 72andSunny LA
Brand Name: Lay’s (PepsiCo / Frito-Lay)
Location: Global (90 markets for “No Lay’s, No Game”); United States (“Bandwagon”)
