PepsiCo leveraged its UEFA partnership with a campaign from its Frito-Lay brand Lay’s leveraging the last-16 round of the Champions League (UCL) with a Lionel Messi led commercial extending the chip brand’s ‘No Lay’s, No Game’ global campaign.
Dropping on 2 March and developed by creative agency Slap Global, the Messi spot sees the Paris Saint-Germain super star turn down an offer to watch a match at a neighbour’s house after finding they didn’t have any Lay’s to snack on whilst watching the soccer.
The 30-second spot, called ‘Messi Visits’, sees the four-time UCL winner and FIFA World Cup champion seemingly show up unannounced at a family home to watch the football before disappointment sets in when he notices there are no Lay’s followed by a swift exit to the tune of a reworked version of Eric Carmen’s 1975 ‘All By Myself’ with lyrics switched to ‘No Lay’s, No Game’.
The Messi ad followed on from the first spot in the series which dropped on 21 February and featured France and Arsenal attacker and UCL winner with FC Barcelona Thierry Henry who surprises a series of unsuspected households as he goes door-to-door looking for a place to watch the UCL which can offer him Lay’s to snack on.
Both spots urge viewers to make sure they‘re well stocked up with Lay’s as you never know who might turn up to watch the UCL.
The campaign ran across a number of targeted international markets including CARICAM (15 member states making up the economic and political Caribbean Community union), Columbia, The Netherlands, South Africa, Poland, Romania and the USA.
Comment
The Henry spot offers some personality and pace, but Messi – who may have just skippered Argentina to a World Cup win and won player of the tournament in the process – front an ad that all feels fairly flat and formulaic. Even the language barrier – Messi only speaks Spanish – feels like a clunky problem for this kind of international campaign.
The two spots were timed to leverage the two-leg 2022/23 UEFA Champions League Round Of 16 which played out across 14/15/21/22 February and 7/8/14/15 March 2023.
The Final is due to be played at Istanbul’s Atatürk Olympic Stadium on 10 June 10 and as the tournament climax approaches Lay’s is expected to unveil limited-edition, UCL thematic chip/crisp bags in selected markets.
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