adidas Football releases new set of World Cup films

Advertising for the World Cup in Russia has been slow to appear though this week sees the launch of three films from adidas Football, focusing on players Mo Salah and Gabriel Jesus, and the RFEF

Created by iris worldwide, the three films act as mini-documentaries, telling the personal stories of those featured as they journey to Russia this summer. Each is tagged ‘Here To Create’ and are tied to the larger adidas brand message of ‘Creativity is the answer’.

Gabriel Jesus’s story focuses on the change that has occurred in his life since the last World Cup, when he was painting the streets of his local favela in support of the Brazilian team. Now the streets are painted for him.

The Salah film reveals his feelings on representing the hopes and dreams of 100 million Egyptians at the World Cup, and features adidas’ customised boots, created especially for him in homage to this, which he will be wearing throughout the tournament.

The RFEF film aims to demonstrate how football can bring Spain together. All the films are subtitled, with the players narrating their stories in their native languages.

The adidas Football films follow a wider brand film, shown below, which was created by 72andSunny Amsterdam and released earlier this month.

Curiously, this film comes with no specific mention of the World Cup (despite adidas being official sponsors) and features a mix of football stars as well as musicians and fashionistas.

While certainly glitzy, the spot felt oddly dislocated in terms of the World Cup – it follows previous ads from the brand with the ‘creativity’ message and despite the timing of its release could serve as an ad for adidas at any time.

The new adidas Football films bring the reason we’re all talking about football right now back into a bit more focus. They sit alongside further footie-related series from the brand including Destined, which tells the stories of individual players such as England’s Dele Alli, and World Cup Dreams, which focus on the national teams sponsored by adidas.

The films are quickly proving popular across social media, with additional spots due for release throughout the World Cup tournament. See them all on the adidas Football YouTube channel here.

Read all of CR’s World Cup 2018 coverage here