- Eataly has launched "The Piazza," its first-ever brand film and largest marketing campaign to date, starring Italian football legend Alessandro Del Piero, released June 22, 2026 on Eataly's social media channels.
- The seven-minute tragicomedy, split into six chapters and created by NYC-based creative agency Johannes Leonardo, follows a group of activist children who launch "Operation Alessandro" to lift a defeated Del Piero's spirits in a town square.
- The campaign's timing is deliberate: Italy failed to qualify for the 2026 World Cup, and Eataly is using Del Piero's iconic status to flip that cultural disappointment into a celebration of Italian food, passion, and resilience.
- As part of consumer activations running all summer, Eataly locations across North America will host live match viewings and limited-time Italian food combination offers at exclusive prices.
Alessandro Del Piero is back in the spotlight, this time off the pitch. Italian food marketplace Eataly has unveiled “The Piazza,” its first-ever brand film and biggest campaign to date, with the soccer icon at its center.
Created by award-winning NYC agency Johannes Leonardo, the seven-minute film follows a band of children who stage a cultural intervention to reignite a disheartened Del Piero, a heartfelt metaphor for Italy’s resilience after missing out on the 2026 World Cup.
“Bringing Eataly and a legendary icon like Alessandro Del Piero together for the greater good was the perfect, heartfelt way to fly the flag this summer,” said Leo Premutico, Co-Founder of Johannes Leonardo.
This marks the agency’s first collaboration with Eataly and Eataly’s first-ever celebrity brand film. The Italian food giant having previously kept its marketing largely product- and experience-focused, without a major celebrity face attached to it.
Del Piero, who captained Juventus for 19 seasons and famously led Italy to the 2006 World Cup title, has remained a high-demand brand partner in retirement.
Most recently, he fronted the BSTN x adidas Handball Spezial “O.G. with a Twist” campaign, shot at Villa Sassi in Turin, and was honored with the Juventus x adidas ADP Collection, a Renaissance-inspired tribute to his career legacy.
He also appeared in adidas’ 2026 World Cup short film “Backyard Legends,” alongside stars including Lionel Messi, David Beckham, and Zinedine Zidane.
The Eataly-Del Piero pairing follows a broader trend of football legends driving major brand storytelling beyond the sport. Much like José Mourinho’s global campaign for Ferragamo and Luis Suárez’s role in Walmart’s Pro Fan World Cup content series, this campaign shows how retired football icons are becoming go-to ambassadors for lifestyle and consumer brands during major sporting moments.
The “Italy Is Eataly” campaign runs all summer across Eataly’s North American locations, with live match viewings and limited-time Italian food pairings available at all quick-service counters.
Takeaways
Eataly’s decision to make its first-ever brand film, and hand the lead role to Alessandro Del Piero, is a bold, strategic swing.
Rather than a traditional ad, they’ve produced a short film with emotional storytelling at its core, leaning into Italy’s World Cup absence as a creative brief rather than a liability. That’s not just clever marketing; it’s a cultural move.
Del Piero is the right face for it: universally loved, authentically Italian, and currently visible across major adidas campaigns, making him one of the most active retired sports ambassadors in the market right now.
For Eataly, this is a brand-building moment. The company has 69 locations across 16 countries and is actively expanding, a campaign of this scale signals a deliberate push to build emotional consumer loyalty, not just foot traffic.
Does Eataly’s choice to debut its first celebrity campaign during a World Cup in which Italy is absent make the strategy more powerful or does it limit global reach? Could “The Piazza” mark the beginning of a longer ambassador relationship between Del Piero and Eataly, or is this a one-off World Cup moment?
