The study is the first to examine harmful commodity branding across an entire FIFA World Cup, and its scale was made possible by an unusual technological ally: Isambard-AI, the United Kingdom’s most powerful supercomputer, based at the University of Bristol. The research team used the machine to analyse all 172.6 hours of live play across the tournament’s 104 matches, applying artificial intelligence to detect and classify branding embedded in the match footage itself, such as the advertising hoardings that line the pitch, rather than the commercials shown during scheduled advertising breaks. This distinction matters, because embedded advertising cannot be skipped, muted out, or avoided without also missing some of the football. It is woven into the visual fabric of the broadcast, and audiences who want to follow the action have no practical means of looking away.

The findings, published in a report titled ‘The price of the beautiful game: how the biggest FIFA World Cup ever became a global platform for promoting harmful products’, reveal that harmful product branding appeared in every single one of the 104 matches. In total, it was visible during 39.3 hours of live play, which represents almost a quarter of all live football broadcast during the tournament. The researchers also calculated the potential reach of this marketing, and the figures are difficult to comprehend. FIFA reported that nearly six billion people engaged with the World Cup, and broadcast records were broken in more than 30 countries. For the United Kingdom alone, the team estimated that harmful product advertising generated 267 billion impressions across the 53 broadcasts for which audience data were available.

Within the overall totals, the concentration of exposure among a handful of globally recognised brands was especially pronounced. A familiar soft drink brand accounted for the highest number of logos detected, with 21,893 appearances, followed by a major fast-food chain with 13,915, a sports drink brand with 12,777 and a popular crisps brand with 12,087. Together, these four brands alone were responsible for 65 per cent of all harmful commodity logos recorded during the tournament. Beyond unhealthy food and drink, which represented 70.4 per cent of all branding detected, the analysis identified 9,360 appearances of prediction market brands, 9,266 alcohol logos, 6,429 gambling logos and 2,632 cryptocurrency branding appearances. The combined footprint of gambling, prediction markets and cryptocurrency products exceeded 18,000 visible appearances in FIFA’s broadcast footage.

Dr Raffaello Rossi, Senior Lecturer in Marketing and Co-Director of the Bristol Hub for Gambling Harms Research at the University of Bristol, and co-author of the study, said that as one of the world’s most watched sporting events, reaching billions of people, this year’s FIFA World Cup provided an unparalleled platform for advertising. He noted that the findings reveal the sheer scale of branding embedded throughout tournament broadcasts, making exposure to unhealthy food, alcohol and gambling brands both omnipresent and unavoidable for viewers. This, he argued, is particularly concerning given the substantial body of evidence linking marketing for unhealthy products, alcohol and gambling with increased consumption and a range of health, social and financial harms, especially among children and young people. Children watching their footballing heroes lift the trophy were simultaneously, and repeatedly, exposed to branding for products that public health authorities consider harmful.

Dr Elisa Becker, a researcher in the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences at the University of Oxford and co-author of the study, framed the issue in stark terms. We are facing a global crisis of childhood obesity and diet-related disease, she observed, yet the world’s biggest sporting event is saturated with marketing for unhealthy food and drinks. In her view, sport should be part of the solution to poor health, not one of the world’s most powerful advertising platforms for the products driving it. Her comment speaks to a long-standing tension in public health policy: the willingness of governing bodies in sport to accept sponsorship revenue from companies whose products conflict with the health messages that sport, at least in principle, is supposed to promote.

One of the most legally consequential findings concerns how FIFA’s match footage was distributed around the world. The same footage, featuring identical embedded advertising around the pitch, was shared with broadcasters in more than 220 territories, including countries where alcohol, gambling or prediction market advertising may be restricted or outright illegal. Despite the existence of virtual board replacement technology that enables different advertising to be shown in different countries, FIFA did not use this technology, and distributed World Cup footage containing embedded branding to countries where the use, advertisement, or purchase of some of the promoted products is not legal. The researchers argue that FIFA’s commercial model failed to adequately account for national laws and cultural norms governing the promotion of harmful commodities.

Dr Rossi described FIFA’s marketing deals as showing little respect for national laws and licensing regimes. The tournament featured around 16,000 gambling and prediction markets logos, with this advertising reaching a host of countries where the promoted brands were unlicensed, or where their legal status was uncertain. He pointed out that one of the most heavily advertised gambling brands listed licences in around 20 countries, while the World Cup was broadcast across more than 220 territories. Put plainly, audiences in the overwhelming majority of countries were shown advertising for a gambling operator that was not licensed locally. What makes this particularly disappointing, he added, is that the problem was avoidable: technology previously used at UEFA EURO 2024 already allows different countries to see different pitchside advertising, yet it was not used to remove or replace branding where products could not lawfully be advertised or offered.

The researchers are calling on governments and regulators to ensure that marketing rules apply to commercial branding embedded within live sports broadcasts, backed by meaningful penalties, and they urge FIFA to adopt an independently developed public interest standard for commercial partnerships and to use existing technology to remove or replace branding where products cannot lawfully be advertised. Their concerns were echoed by advocacy figures. Beth Bradshaw, Policy and Advocacy Lead at the Obesity Health Alliance, said commercial brands use the passion and excitement of sport to sell products while young fans pay the price, urging the Government to act on the Health and Social Care Select Committee’s recommendation to extend advertising restrictions to sport. Alex Ballinger MP, Co-Chair of the Gambling Reform APPG, said current rules and safeguards are inadequate and that urgent reform is needed to protect young and vulnerable fans. US Congressman Paul Tonko described sports gambling as rapidly becoming the public health crisis of the generation, pointing to early exposure being linked to problem gambling later in life, and renewed his push for federal legislation through his SAFE Bet Act. The report is the latest from the Bristol Hub for Gambling Harms Research and was funded by the University of Bristol, whose work has previously influenced public policy and consumer protection.

Subject of Research: AI-based quantification of harmful commodity advertising exposure during the FIFA World Cup

Article Title: World Cup viewers exposed to junk food, alcohol and gambling branding every seven seconds, study finds

Article References: World Cup viewers exposed to junk food, alcohol and gambling branding every seven seconds, study finds. (n.d.). Original publication

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: Not provided

Keywords: FIFA World Cup, unhealthy food marketing, gambling advertising, alcohol sponsorship, Isambard-AI, public health, children's exposure, advertising regulation, cryptocurrency promotion, broadcast media, World, viewers