This article originally appeared in MM+M.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup kicks off on Thursday afternoon, featuring some of the most talented soccer players in the world competing against each other for a month — along with some prominent health brands advertising in and around the matches.
This quadrennial tournament comprises an expanded field of 48 teams, with at least a half dozen pharma companies and provider organizations offering support, too.
Given how eagerly health companies have embraced opportunities in the world of athletics — either sponsoring leagues, teams or individual athletes — it comes as no surprise that they would jump at the chance to associate themselves with the pomp and circumstance of the World Cup.
Bristol Myers Squibb
Bristol Myers Squibb borrowed from soccer lingo to frame the long, uncertain process of drug development ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
The pharma company’s recently launched Won’t Lose campaign compares scientific progress to a match decided by inches, where missed shots and setbacks are part of the pursuit of a breakthrough. BMS worked with Siegel & Gale for creative and Omnicom for media.
The spot follows researchers through repeated trials before landing on its central message: “When the stakes are this real, victory must belong to patients.”
Two-time FIFA Women’s World Cup champion Ali Krieger narrates the campaign, which will run nationally across connected TV, programmatic display, streaming audio, digital video and social media throughout the competition.
“Many shots miss, but the ones that land change everything,” Krieger said in the spot.
Rather than tying BMS to a particular drug or disease area, the corporate campaign positions the theme of persistence as the connective tissue between elite athletes and scientists.
