And the world cup sponsorships continue.

Brands who could otherwise don’t normally care about a sport always want to be associated with the buzz surrounding that sport’s main event, so they develop creative with specific themes. *Unofficial* sponsors do this all the time too with ambush marketing. That’s when brands don’t pay to be an official sponsor and instead draft behind those who do. Lot of brands pay a lot of money to be on this official list. (Contrary to the view that Nike has stolen some thunder, I give this year’s World Cup ambush coup to Pepsi.) Hyundai though is an official FIFA partner this year. Which means they’ll continue to sponsor FIFA’s soccer tournaments moving forward.

But even though they did a nice futbol spot here, the car porn product shot add-on at the end just feels less a commitment to the sport. This is generally what happens with many brands and TV events. They don’t usually support the culture surrounding the event the rest of the year in their regular messaging, preferring instead to push extended warranties. (Maybe they’ll go after soccer mommy bloggers this year, who knows.) Futbol diehards though can always find something wrong in the way brands depict the sport.

Allstate’s spots (video gallery) guaranteeing 100% protection, except, with any of the scenarios depicted, chance is very much a part of each dynamic, not certainty. Samsung, in an attempt to depict the quality of the picture, shows exciting closeups. Problem is, one of the problems for adoption of soccer in the U.S. has to do with how it’s covered by TV. Ants running around is what you normally get, cementing the boring vibe so many have of the game, not in your face action.