adidas, Charli xcx, and the AI World Cup

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Ok now, let’s get into what happened this week. 🚀

🚨 TRENDING TOPICS

✅ adidas brings 2002 football legends back with VFX.

adidas’ viral FIFA World Cup 2026 film “Backyard Legends” is still doing the rounds, mostly because of its stacked cast: Timothée Chalamet, Messi, Bad Bunny, Jude Bellingham, Lamine Yamal, Trinity Rodman — and de-aged versions of David Beckham, Zinedine Zidane, and Alessandro Del Piero.

For us, the most interesting part is the “youngified” legends. Untold Studios was part of the VFX team, and while there’s no confirmed breakdown yet on whether AI was used, the result definitely sits in that fascinating grey zone between classic de-aging, CG face work, green screen, compositing, and possibly AI-assisted workflows.

CLICK HERE TO SEE IT

✅ Charli xcx joins Nothing as investor and global ambassador.

Brands don’t just want celebrity reach anymore. They want cultural alignment, creative credibility, and someone with actual skin in the game.

For a challenger tech brand like Nothing, Charli brings more than attention. She brings an aesthetic world, a fan language, and post-Brat momentum.

👉 See what the campaign looks like here.

✅ The 2026 World Cup may become the first  AI-native global sports event.

The 2026 World Cup is shaping up to be one of the biggest real-world tests for AI in live sports. Not just for faster highlights or automated edits, but across the full event ecosystem: officiating, match analysis, broadcast production, fan engagement, and personalized content.

That’s the bigger shift for marketers: live sports are turning into content engines. The game is still the main event, but everything around it becomes programmable, remixable, and personalized in real time.

✅ Tesco turns fruit and veg into a giant CGI character.

Tesco’s new Free Fruit & Veg for Schools campaign follows a giant made entirely of fruit and vegetables as he travels across the UK with a child called Theo, giving away pieces of himself to schools. The campaign supports Tesco’s plan to double the programme from 500 to over 1,000 schools from September, with the goal of helping one million UK schoolchildren get more fruit and veg.

The VFX was led by Untold Studios, with the campaign created by BBH London and directed by Nick Ball through MJZ.

ENTER HERE

🧠 WEEKLY AI CREATIVE

This is part 7 of our weekly series where we test the AI tools everyone is talking about and figure out what they’re actually useful for.

This week, we turned one simple collab idea into a full cinematic AI spec ad:

What if NASA designed sunglasses with Oakley? We used NanoBanana Pro to design the product and build campaign frames, Cinema Studio to create cinematic stills and controlled product motion, and Kling 3.0 to bring the lunar world to life.

See the full breakdown (prompts included) in this week’s spec ad.

AI ad test: Oakley x NASA

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