Lay’s watch party-themed campaign for the FIFA World Cup. Courtesy of Lay’s
While brands pay millions for stadium rights and thirty-second broadcast slots during the group stages, Lay's decided the more interesting brief is your living room. The World Cup returning to North America for the first time since 1994 is the kind of moment that makes sponsors lose their minds — logos on jerseys, naming rights, pitch-side boards blurring past in 4K for ninety minutes. Lay's is doing some of that. But the campaign they actually care about involves Messi, Beckham, Thierry Henry, Alexia Putellas, and Steve Carell standing in a supermarket car park in southern Florida checking strangers' grocery bags.
Got Lay's? You're invited to the watch party. No Lay's? Enjoy your evening.
The platform that never got scrapped
"No Lay's, No Game" has been running since 2023. That year, Thierry Henry showed up uninvited at fans' homes. In 2024, Henry and Beckham filmed reactions pitch-side at San Siro. In 2025, Messi and Putellas walked a pub crawl through Miami and Barcelona, stepping into actual bars where real people lost their minds mid-pint. Now in 2026, Messi, Beckham, Henry, Putellas, and Steve Carell are standing in a supermarket car park in southern Florida checking strangers' grocery bags. The premise hasn't shifted once across four years — football is better with Lay's, and the watch party is the moment worth showing up for.
This is Lay's first global FIFA World Cup sponsorship. Ninety markets. The biggest football event in a generation landing in North America. And they're running the same idea for the fourth consecutive year.
Steve Carell doing karaoke in a car park
Carell's job in the ad isn't comedy. It's permission. The World Cup in the US has two audiences sitting on the same couch — the person who's been watching MLS for six years and has opinions about the 4-3-3, and the person who showed up because it seemed fun. Lay's US CMO Hernán Tantardini was direct about it: the hardcore fans are already locked in. You don't need to convince them. The campaign is for sports lovers, people who gather around big events, people who want an excuse to get together.
The US campaign is literally called "Bandwagon." They took the insult and turned it into the welcome mat.
The casting was built with more precision than a car park stunt lets on. Messi for Latin America and global credibility. Beckham for North American crossover, his Inter Miami connection making him specifically relevant here. Henry for continuity — he's been in all four years. Putellas for the Women's World Cup in 2027, which Lay's also sponsors. Carell for everyone who showed up because their partner put the game on. Each one doing a specific job. The car park is just where they're all doing it at once.
Ten million people in a WhatsApp group they chose to join
Lay's launched an "Epic Watch Party Channel" on WhatsApp in March — Messi, Beckham, Henry, Putellas, and Carell posting voice notes, memes, and match-day debate as they "plan" the watch party together. Ten million followers before a ball's been kicked.
VP of marketing Alexis Porter calls it "scaled intimacy" — the feeling of being in the group chat even when ten million other people are in it, too. Followers can react and share. They can't post freely, which is partly a safety decision when Messi's involved, and partly the only way to keep the thing coherent. The moment it becomes a comments section, it's over.
Underneath the warmth is something more useful than reach. Ten million people who found the channel and opted in, sitting in Lay's direct line of communication on their primary messaging app. No third-party data that expires with the next browser update. No algorithm deciding who sees what next week. Porter was clear this informs everything that comes next — not just football, the whole brand. The tournament is the excuse. The audience is the actual prize.
What four years of the same idea actually buys you
"No Lay's, No Game" is elastic enough that it hasn't needed replacing. It's gone from a fan's living room in 2023 to a Florida parking lot in 2026 without the core idea wearing thin. The stunt evolves, the talent scales, the markets multiply. The brief stays put.
The question worth sitting with isn't whether the campaign is good. It's whether ten million people voluntarily joining a WhatsApp channel changes how brands think about owned audiences versus paid reach. Because right now, before a single match kicks off, Lay's has direct access to ten million people on their most-used messaging app. When the final wraps and the media spend stops, that channel remains.
Lay's discovered that in a Florida parking lot after four years of running the same idea.
