When the U.S. men’s national team missed out on the World Cup in 2018, the shocking failure basically had Nike abandoning its World Cup marketing campaign in the U.S. that year. The absence of a highly produced kickoff ad — like in 2010 and 2014 — was obvious and not a coincidence.
It was supposed to be Nike’s first chance to truly market Christian Pulisic (who has since signed with Puma) on the global stage. And you have to give Nike credit: The 2018 jerseys for the U.S. were great.
