Nike just dropped their World Cup 2026 campaign and it's six minutes long. That's not an ad, that's a film.
"Rip the Script" was created by Wieden+Kennedy and directed by Dan Streit. The concept is simple and deliberately broad: ditch the tactical playbook, trust your instincts, play with joy. Set in a Hollywood mega-studio where the script keeps getting thrown out, the film packs over 30 names into one chaotic, deliberately maximalist production. Kylian Mbappé, Vini Jr., Erling Haaland, LeBron James, Jorge Campos, Travis Scott, Central Cee, Young Miko, and Cristiano Ronaldo alongside Zlatan, Eric Cantona, Didier Drogba, Ted Lasso, Kim Kardashian and her son Saint West.
That guest list is the whole point. This isn't a football ad talking to football fans. This is Nike treating the World Cup as a full cultural event and placing it where hip-hop, streetwear, entertainment and sport already overlap. That's the widontplay territory right there.
The cultural connections run deep if you look. Travis Scott. Central Cee. The Virgil Abloh Archive collaboration for the US Soccer Federation as part of Nike's X2 collections, seven different creatives tied to seven national teams, all sitting between sport and culture. These include training gear, a Nike Cryoshot, and fan apparel for both matchday and everyday life. Abloh's fingerprints on a World Cup kit in 2026 is a statement that extends well past football.
Nike has been running TOMA street football tournaments globally for the past year as groundwork for this moment. The film isn't the campaign, it's the entry point into something bigger. A multi-platform storytelling ecosystem instead of a single flagship ad.
Does it work? Yes. It's bloated in places, deliberately so, but the energy lands. The 1998 airport sequence, the 2002 cage game, the Joga Bonito era all cast a long shadow over Nike World Cup marketing. "Rip the Script" references that history while doing its own thing. Whether it earns a spot in the same conversation is a question for after the tournament.
For now, watch it. Six minutes well spent.
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