FIFA World Cup Branding Study Reveals 'Omnipresent' Ad Load

A study conducted by the University of Bristol and the University of Oxford found that viewers of the most recent FIFA World Cup were exposed to branding for gambling, alcohol, and unhealthy food and drink every seven seconds, as the University of Bristol first reported.

Using the Isambard-AI supercomputer to analyze 172.6 hours of live play across 104 matches, researchers recorded over 93,000 visible appearances of harmful commodity brands. According to the University of Bristol, unhealthy food and drink brands dominated the landscape, accounting for 70.4% of all detected branding with 65,722 appearances. Four specific brands—a soft drink brand, a fast-food chain, a sports drink brand, and a crisps brand—were responsible for 65% of all harmful commodity logos.

Other significant categories included prediction markets (9,360 appearances), alcohol (9,266), gambling (6,429), and cryptocurrency (2,632). The research highlights that this advertising was built directly into match footage, such as on hoardings, making it unavoidable for viewers. Dr. Raffaello Rossi, a Senior Lecturer in Marketing at the University of Bristol, noted that FIFA's commercial model appeared to disregard national laws, as footage containing gambling and prediction market logos was distributed to over 220 territories despite brands often being unlicensed in those regions.

While technology used by UEFA EURO 2024 allows for virtual board replacement to tailor ads by country, the study found FIFA did not utilize this technology. Dr. Elisa Becker, a Researcher in the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences at the University of Oxford, stated that the tournament has become one of the world's most powerful advertising platforms for products driving global health crises, such as childhood obesity.