Lionel Messi in his post-Super Bowl Ad for Apple TV.
If the lopsided nature of Sunday night’s Super Bowl LIX contest caused you to tune out early, you may have missed one of Major League Soccer and Apple TV’s most aggressive advertising offensives in their respective histories.
In a 30-second spot that aired on Fox following the game, Lionel Messi juggled an American football on an American football field, before side-volleying it through the American football goalposts in a dark, misty and unidentified American football stadium.
Then came the slogan: “When football ends, futbol begins.”
It’s hard to know exactly what impact the spot will have, and Apple TV has been perpetually secretive about its viewership metrics through the first two years of its 10-year pact as MLS’ worldwide streaming partner.
But the segment appeared to be a hit among most league followers who saw it, which is a departure from most of MLS and Apple’s public communication since their partnership began. Here’s three possible reasons why the ad resonated so well.
Simplicity
So much of MLS’ previous advertising content has consisted of the league overtly trying to persuade viewers of its own value.
The “Our Soccer” campaign of the last two years tried to appeal to American soccer fans’ sense of duty that they should support MLS because it is their nation’s own. There were similar implicit messages in other campaigns over the last decade.
The problem is that appealing to a sense of duty also hinted at an inferiority complex – a sensitivity that fans might not find the quality or drama of MLS compelling enough on its own compared against more popular TV properties like the English Premier League and Liga MX.
Sunday’s spot is fundamentally different in that it makes no claim about why you should watch. It merely presents Messi – the world’s most recognizable player – with an up-close look at his skill, and leaves the burden on the viewer to find out more.
Self-Awareness
In putting Messi on an American football field, on an ad that ran on the biggest of all American football stages, Apple TV showed a self-awareness that has often been absent in the tone MLS’ self-advocacy.
From the obsession with christening expansion teams with European-sounding names to the futile arguments over being left out of North American discussions of “major” sports leagues, there has been a misguided obsession with trying to assimilate and gain acceptance into already existing sports cultures.
The tone of this spot reveals no such insecurity and in fact tacitly admits MLS’ place as a sport whose place among American fans is far down the pecking order from the titan that is the NFL. That’s a far more secure vision of itself, and one that should be more attractive to potential new fans who are wary of a heavier sales pitch.
Authenticity
If you’ve followed Messi’s growing presence over the years, you’ll notice he does almost no talking in any of his endorsements. (The most he ever says in any ad that runs on MLS Apple TV broadcasts is “Hola. No, Michelob Ultra.”)
By all reports, that’s in general keeping with the man’s personality, one that is more introverted than other all-time greats like Pele, Diego Maradonna and longtime Messi rival Cristiano Ronaldo.
At one time, it even obstructed Messi’s reputation in his homeland of Argentina, though that has largely changed for the better after he helped the Albiceleste capture the 2021 Copa America and 2022 FIFA World Cup titles.
Given Pele’s history in the United States and Canada playing in the long-defunct NASL, there could be a temptation to try and make Messi into a more demonstrative salesman for the game in the manner Pele was when playing for the New York Cosmos. But that would not be a comfortable fit for Messi or a convincing one for his fans.
Instead, the ad features what has drawn people the world over to Messi for the entirety of his career: his wizardry with a ball at his feet. Even a brown, oblong one.
