Brands are serving up some powerful emotions at this year's World Cup, with AB InBev's "Cheers To Bars" generating the strongest positive emotional response among food and drink advertisers. That’s according to new data from creative intelligence platform DAIVID, which analysed all of the 2026 World Cup campaigns released so far using its AI-powered creative effectiveness platform, ranking them by the intensity of positive emotions they are predicted to generate. 

"Cheers To Bars", which celebrates the role of local bars in communities around the world, generated intense positive emotions among 53.7% of viewers, placing it ahead of every other food and drink campaign in the tournament so far.

The campaign also delivered above-average attention throughout and was 139% more likely to evoke intense feelings of nostalgia, 71% more likely to generate warmth and 54% more likely to trigger excitement than the average ad, placing it in the top 21% of ads tested by DAIVID.

Lay’s "The Most Epic Watch Party" ranked second, followed by Irn-Bru’s "We're Made in Scotland from Girders" in third. Coca-Cola’s "Bubbling Up" and Fernet Branca’s "We Are Unbearable" completed the top five. Other brands to feature in the top 10 include Budweiser,Modelo USA and Pepsi. 

• World Cup ads outperform Super Bowl ads on positive emotions, generating 18.8% more excitement, 9.8% more joy, and 2% more amusement on average.
• World Cup creative also scores higher on inspirational emotions, including inspiration, admiration, hope, and pride, reflecting a more uplifting and collective tone.
• Super Bowl ads evoke stronger disruptive emotions, with higher levels of disgust, sadness, and awkwardness, aligning with their more provocative creative style.
• Despite lower emotional positivity, Super Bowl ads lead on brand outcomes, delivering higher purchase intent, brand recommendations, search intent, and sharing.

Ian Forrester, CEO and founder of DAIVID, said: "World Cup ads are certainly delivering a powerful kick of positive emotions, with brands particularly leaning into strong feelings of nostalgia, togetherness, and optimism. But when it comes to shifting behaviour, the Super Bowl still holds the advantage, proving that feel-good doesn’t always equal commercial effectiveness."

^Methodology

^{DAIVID's World Cup study was compiled using its AI-powered platform. Trained using tens of millions of human responses to ads, the solution predicts the emotions an ad will generate, and its likely impact on brand and business metrics, enabling advertisers to measure the effectiveness of their ad campaigns at scale. Altogether, 89 World Cup ads released online were included in the study. Data was compiled at 6am EST on June 17, 2026, with rankings updated throughout the tournament.}