“[Bryan] understands action, but having fun with action,” O’Brien said. “Viewers get involved and engaged because they want to know what happens next, but they aren’t so engaged that they forget the brand.”
Frito-Lay is a North America sponsor for the World Cup and also the “official USA snack” for the tournament, which begins July 20 in Australia and New Zealand. The ad will run online and during TV broadcasts through the rest of the Women’s World Cup, which ends Aug. 20. Fox Sports will air matches on Fox and FS1, while NBCUniversal’s Telemundo has U.S. Spanish-language rights.
Frito-Lay was previously a North American sponsor for the 2022 men’s FIFA World Cup held in Qatar, the brand’s first World Cup deal. O’Brien said that the PepsiCo brand knew then it would also be a sponsor of the Women’s World Cup.
“We knew from the get-go that the Women’s World Cup is just as important as the men’s,” he said. “We went in knowing that if we did the men’s, we would do the women’s as well.”
It marks Frito Lay North America’s “largest-ever investment in women's sports,” according to an announcement of the deal in May.
FIFA says the Women’s World Cup will be the largest standalone women’s sporting event in the world, reaching an estimated 2 billion people and 1.5 million spectators. Other sponsors include McDonald’s, Unilever and Visa.
Read more: FIFA Women’s World Cup—what brands need to know
The commercial is part of a larger Frito-Lay campaign tied to the tournament, including a sweepstakes conducted on Twitter. Prizes include $1,000 cash and two tickets and travel to Sydney to watch the World Cup final. For each goal scored, fans are asked to tweet “GOAL” using #sweepstakes and #LaysGOALdenGiveaway and tag @Lays. Each Tweet @Lays counts as an entry.
The snack behemoth will also host a watch party with Fox Sports on July 21 at The Star in Frisco, Texas.