- McDonald's has launched its largest-ever campaign by market scale, rolling out across 100+ markets worldwide, featuring Ronaldinho, David Beckham, Thierry Henry, Lamine Yamal, Son Heung-min, Christian Pulisic, Santiago Giménez, and Alphonso Davies.
- Produced by Wieden+Kennedy New York, the campaign features 60-, 30- and 15-second spots showing the football stars eating at McDonald's, playing with soccer balls, and ordering at drive-thru windows, with the ads also running across CTV, linear, digital, social, and out-of-home placements.
- With each FIFA World Cup 26 Meal, fans receive one of nine collectible cups featuring soccer icons including Beckham, Ronaldinho, Henry, Son Heung-Min, Lamine Yamal, Alphonso Davies, Santiago Gimenez, Christian Pulisic, and Grimace.
- McDonald's has been a FIFA World Cup sponsor since 1994, meaning this collectible cup lineup arrives with over three decades of consumer brand conditioning behind it.
McDonald’s is going all out for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, and it’s brought along some of football’s biggest names to do it.
The fast-food giant has unveiled its largest-ever campaign by market scale, reaching 100+ markets globally, fronted by Ronaldinho, David Beckham, Thierry Henry, Lamine Yamal, Son Heung-min, Christian Pulisic, Santiago Giménez, and Alphonso Davies.
Rather than placing these legends on pedestals, McDonald’s takes a different angle, showing that even the most iconic athletes have a go-to McDonald’s order.
The hero 60-second spot opens with archival career footage from each player, then cuts to present-day comedic vignettes at a McDonald’s, where they interact with mascots Grimace and the Hamburglar, each eventually holding their own collectible commemorative cup.
The FIFA World Cup 26 Meal launched across the U.S. on June 4, rolling out globally by June 9, with customers choosing between a Big Mac or 10-piece Chicken McNuggets.
This is a smart activation for McDonald’s, which has previously tapped footballer talent including Lionel Messi and others, just as Lay’s did in their recent World Cup star-studded ‘No Lay’s, No Game’ campaign featuring Beckham and Henry.
Off the pitch, Beckham has been active on the brand circuit, recently partnering with SharkNinja, Hugo Boss, and Stella Artois, while Henry joined Samsung’s World Cup TV campaign and signed with Betway in August 2025.
Ronaldinho, who previously fronted Chip2Go, continues to expand his footprint in brand partnerships globally.
The campaign’s collectible format follows a similar playbook to Devin Booker’s recent McDonald’s peer Nike Book 2 sneaker launch, where limited-edition product tie-ins drive both traffic and cultural buzz.
Takeaways
McDonald’s isn’t trying to become a football brand here, it’s reminding the world it already is one. By leaning into humor, nostalgia, and the universal truth that legends eat fast food too, the brand has crafted something that feels genuinely warm rather than corporate.
Pairing retired icons like Ronaldinho, Beckham, and Henry alongside active stars gives the campaign multi-generational pull, parents and kids can both find their hero on a cup.
The collectible angle is no accident either; limited-edition McDonald’s items have historically driven real resale value, turning a meal into a moment.
Does using retired legends alongside active stars give McDonald’s a deeper emotional hook than brands using only current players? Could the collectible cup strategy drive more repeat store visits than a standard promotional meal would on its own?
