In 2010, then-FIFA president Sepp Blatter cracked a white and red wax-sealed envelope announcing Qatar as the World Cup host for 2022. And in the process, he opened a can of worms.
In the 12 years since, the upcoming Middle Eastern tournament has been mired in controversy. And with the Nov. 21 kickoff drawing closer, there are no signs this will abate.
However, with FIFA forecasting the playoffs to draw in a record global audience of 5 billion, and Dentsu predicting a $2 billion bump to ad spend on the back of it, sponsors and brands are joining players in gearing up for the starting whistle.
Unlike the athletes, though, brands will face their biggest challenges off the pitch, where they’ll have to align their carefully crafted, heavily promoted values against the backdrop of alleged human rights abuses, anti-LGBTQ+ laws and serious concerns about the safety of women.
Issues around Qatar’s hosting duties have included a two-yearlong corruption investigation from FIFA, which eventually found “no concerns” over the bidding process, bribery charges brought by the U.S. against officials from soccer’s governing body, accusations of human rights abuses and exploitation in relation to the (mostly) migrant laborers building Qatar’s stadiums, questions from soccer players and fans over anti-LGBTQ+ laws and even apprehension over the event’s winter scheduling and hot climate of the host country.
The gloss of the World Cup is potentially poisonous to sponsors.
Dan Hulse, CSO, St Luke’s
Official sponsors with direct ties to the tournament, including large multinationals like McDonald’s and Coca-Cola, are working to square the above with their own brand values.
Elsewhere, fringe advertisers, usually keen to capture the excitement and capitalize on the eyeballs watching in their home markets, are thinking carefully about how they associate themselves with World Cup 2022.
A small number of brands have already started making statements about the issues that have overshadowed the tournament. This has included Danish team sponsor and sportswear brand Hummel, which “toned down” the team’s uniform, making its logo less visible on the jersey in protest again Qatar’s human rights record. In the Netherlands, budget supermarket Lidl is refusing to run ads during broadcasts of World Cup matches, forgoing a prime opportunity to encourage shoppers to spend more.
Players are planning protests, too, with England captain Harry Kane among those planning to wear a “OneLove” armband to show visible support for the LGBTQ+ community. Nine other European teams have committed to this even though they may face sanctions by FIFA.
This follows up from fans from the LGBTQ+ community, as well as their allies, vocalizing concerns about Qatar’s strict homosexuality laws.
The Gulf Arab state prohibits same-sex activity, imposing prison sentences for breaking the rules. Though the death penalty is also technically possible in instances of sex between Muslim men, there are no recent cases of it being enforced.
Organizers have said everyone, no matter their sexual orientation or background, is welcome. However, they have warned against public displays of affection.
A ‘poisonous’ chalice?
“The trap for brands is that the World Cup is the most premium event in football—the best stars in the world competing in show-stopping new stadiums,” mused Dan Hulse, chief strategy officer at London indie agency St Luke’s. “However, that gloss is potentially poisonous to sponsors, given the controversies around how it has all been achieved.”
The reported human rights issues in the lead-up to Qatar have mainly centered around the country’s treatment of migrant workers.
According to Amnesty International, overseas laborers account for 90% of Qatar’s workforce, with 1.7 million thought to be working at present. Official embassy data published in 2021 revealed 6,500 workers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka had died since it won the bid in 2010.
Until 2020, Qatar had a “kafala” system of labor sponsorship in place, under which a worker’s visa sponsor (typically their employer) could control their immigration status, wages, accommodation and all other contract terms. The government has softened this somewhat, removing the requirement that workers must obtain their sponsor’s approval to change employers.
Advertisers need to walk a line between acknowledging these issues… versus exposing themselves for a lack of direct action.
Chris Ross, vp analyst, Gartner
From a communications perspective, some of the key sponsors have released statements calling for compensation for the families of migrant workers who were impacted. These include Budweiser, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s and Adidas.
Ten other World Cup partners and sponsors failed to respond to a request calling for support from NGO Human Rights Watch, despite having their own policies on the matter, as well as environmental, social and governance standards in their operations and business relationships.
For Gartner vice president analyst Chris Ross, there’s still a needle that needs to be threaded here for a lot of brands, whether they’re sponsors or not. “Advertisers need to walk a line between acknowledging these issues and letting people know they’re important versus exposing themselves for a lack of direct action,” he said.
He suggested some multinationals might do this by donating to nonprofits publicly or behind the scenes.
Ross added it wouldn’t be surprising if some sponsors completely ignored some of the issues surrounding the event, in the hope that long-term ROI would override any deafening silence, pointing to recent Gartner research that revealed almost two-thirds of consumers don’t make purchase decisions based on their political or social beliefs.
For Papillon Bond, a cultural researcher at BBH London, however, soccer is never just about soccer. The context of the human rights abuses occurring in Iran following the death of Mahsa Amini while she was in police custody renders Qatar’s human rights controversies even more pertinent.
“Iran being potentially ‘thrown out of’ the World Cup [over this case] highlights the intersection of sport, politics and human rights,” she said.
“Brands operating in this space ought to think very carefully about the implications of their messaging at this time, or use it as an opportunity to amplify the unheard voices of those fighting for their liberation.”
What to expect from advertisers
Despite a boom in value-based marketing and brands placing social causes at the root of their creative (see: activations around International Women’s Day, Pride Month and more), consumers are unlikely to see corporations take the same creative approach to their World Cup campaigns.
“Globally, we can expect to see more generic messaging around ‘togetherness’ and ‘excitement’ instead of tapping into the uniqueness of the host city,” predicted Louise Johnson, CEO of sports marketing agency Fuse.
Brands should use this as an opportunity to amplify the unheard voices of those fighting for their liberation.
Papillon Bond, cultural research, BBH
Coca-Cola has already launched “Believing is Magic,” which focuses on how the drinks connects fans worldwide. Non-sponsors like eBay and Puma are tapping into similar celebratory themes.
Hulse agreed brands would be tempted to tap into the social power of soccer. “Don’t be seen as a sponsor of an event whose values conflict with your own. Be seen as a sponsor of a sport that unites us all,” he advised.
Ross noted brands that adopt a “blissfully unaware” strategy risk putting themselves in the firing line, with accusations of “purpose-washing” or “pink-washing” likely to spring up. He expected to see a fair amount of “player activism” on the pitch.
“You might see players doing things their teams won’t even know they’re doing. Things FIFA doesn’t want them doing or sponsors don’t want them doing. That will be very interesting to watch,” he added.
Despite the scrutiny over Qatar, the 2022 World Cup will still command huge TV audiences as one of the world’s biggest sporting spectacles. Fans will still tune in to see how their country performs, they’ll still head down to the pub to catch the matches and they will still share content in support of their team.
“After all, scrutiny over Russia’s human rights didn’t stop the 2018 World Cup from commanding 1.1 billion viewers for the final,” observed Johnson.
Now it’s up to brands to decide how they use their huge influence while the world watches on.
