ESPN Launches 2010 World Cup Advertising Campaign

ESPN unveiled the next phase of their advertising campaign Wednesday to promote its coverage of the 2010 World Cup.

The campaign is entitled “One Game Changes Everything.” The first video, see “Robben Island” video above, began airing across ESPN networks on April 7 and tells the true story of how Nelson Mandela and many South African activists played soccer while incarcerated in a prison on Robben Island. The video is brilliantly shot and gave me goosebumps just watching it.

ESPN will release three more commercials for the “One Game Changes Everything” campaign. UNITED conveys the passion for the FIFA World Cup that unites disparate cultures. The Power of 10 celebrates the honor and burden that comes with wearing the most sacred jersey number in soccer. Passion captures the excitement that the FIFA World Cup invokes—highlighting the documented “baby boom” that occurred nine months after Germany hosted the 2006 event.

For music fans, you’ll be glad to know that ESPN will use specially recorded music by Soweto Gospel Choir recorded and filmed in South Africa, with music and live concert footage from U2’s record breaking concert at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., in October 2009. This collaboration will appear in every program throughout ESPN’s presentation of the 2010 FIFA World Cup including soccer highlights, match and studio coverage.