Adidas just dropped its best World Cup ad in 20 years

Tell me if you’ve heard this one before: A big-budget blockbuster World Cup ad from a footwear giant features a laundry list of star players, celebrities, and a storyline that revolves around a big game in an unexpected place or with unexpected characters. This could describe Nike’s classic 2002 “Cage” ad, Adidas’s 2006 “José” ad, Nike’s 2014 “Winner Stays” spot . . . You get the idea. But it’s also a broad summary of Adidas’s newest World Cup commercial, “Backyard Legends,” which launched on May 7 via star Timothée Chalamet’s Instagram. The five-minute advertising epic opens with Oscar-nominated actor Chalamet trying to put together the greatest street soccer team ever, starting with Team USA star Trinity Rodman, Jude Bellingham of Real Madrid and Team England, and Spanish teen sensation Lamine Yamal of FC Barcelona. Turns out there is a legendary street soccer crew that hasn’t been beaten since 1996, and Chalamet is determined to end their streak. We get a peek into the mysterious street ballers’ past, as they upset ’90s stars including David Beckham and Zinedine “Zizou” Zidane. Bad Bunny and Lionel Messi are there to take in the action. Lola USA—a new Omnicom franken-agency forged in April when the holding company combined 180 and Adam&EveDDB New York—created the spot. The magic trick it pulls off is how it manages to take a less-than unique story device (famous players, unexpected game, etc.), and give it a new spin in a way that lives up to both the hype and the occasion of the world’s biggest sporting event. It might just be the best World Cup ad from the Three Stripes in 20 years. [Image: Adidas] Historical precedent Like I said, the fantasy draft football squad device is nothing new to mark a World Cup. In 2002, Nike put Manchester United legend Eric Cantona in the Chalamet role, recruiting star players to participate in a secret street ball tournament on a container ship in the middle of the ocean. The swoosh was back at it again in 2014 with “Winner Stays,