Campaign Spotlights Celebrations Around Football That Inspire and Unify Communities Worldwide
The NFL unveiled its season-long brand campaign for 2024, “This Is Football Country,” which documents the passion behind the sport and its power to unify and inspire. The 60-second video showcases a rallying anthem, bringing to life how the universal joy and love for the game of football continues to bring communities together from all over the world.
The commercial was created by 72andSunny, and film production took place all over the world, including Brazil, Hawaii, Florida, Japan, New York and Mexico. In addition to the hero 60-second film, the campaign will roll out shorter vignettes throughout the year highlighting stories around the world, in cities like Tokyo, islands like Maui or neighborhoods like Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
The campaign commercial opens in a locker room huddle with the Lahainaluna high school football team, who showed incredible resilience during the Hawaiian fires and served as honorary captains at Super Bowl LVIII. The team starts a chant, “Remember who we are and who we represent.” Makena Cook, rising flag football star for Team USA and the Los Angeles Rams girls flag team, continues with her squad, “All day like…” The scene then cuts to an evening practice with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ USA Wheelchair Football League team, a league funded in part through the NFL’s Salute to Service initiative dedicated to honoring, empowering and connecting with our nation’s service members, veterans, and their families, as they join in with, “All night like…”
“‘This campaign channels a powerful feeling – it’s the love and joy that the game brings to communities around the world, no matter who you are, where you are or how you choose to express it,” said Tim Ellis, NFL chief marketing officer. “We wanted to capture the universal joy of this game while conveying the palpable hype that comes with the return of football, and we’re opening the season with the biggest Kickoff weekend ever to match that excitement.”
Building into a crescendo throughout the video, the chant becomes an anthem, with cameos from some of the NFL’s most prominent players and Legends, including Jason Kelce (NFL Legend/former Philadelphia Eagles) and wife Kylie, DeMarcus Lawrence (Dallas Cowboys), Stefon Diggs (Houston Texans) and Myles Garrett (Cleveland Browns). Real-life football stars and personalities, such as Pro Football Player and Creator Deestroying, who’s shown hosting his popular 1ON1 football series in Japan, and college player Haley Van Voorhis, who made history as the first woman who wasn’t a kicker to play in an NCAA football game, are also featured in the spot.
The league is continuing to emphasize global growth as a major strategic priority — aiming to establish the NFL as a global sports property. The 2024 NFL Kickoff presented by YouTube TV will be a four-day football weekend of epic proportions, as the Super Bowl LVIII champions, the Kansas City Chiefs, host the Baltimore Ravens at 8:20pm ET on Thursday, Sept. 5, on NBC and Peacock, followed by Friday night, when the Green Bay Packers will take on the Philadelphia Eagles for the first time in history in South America at Corinthians Arena in São Paulo, Brazil. Fans can watch the Peacock-exclusive game at 8:15pm ET. Kickoff weekend will continue with unforgettable matchups on Sunday and Monday. Additional 2024 NFL International Games will be played across London, U.K. (Oct. 6, Oct. 13, Oct. 20) and Munich, Germany (Nov. 10), alongside the league’s ongoing international football development efforts and fan-focused initiatives worldwide.
This year’s campaign also features flag football, another major strategic priority for the league. As one of the world’s fastest-growing sports, flag is played by over 20 million people in more than 100 countries, across six continents. It is the most inclusive and accessible format of football, played by people of all ages and genders, with female athletes driving some of the fastest growth. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced that flag football will be included in the 2028 Summer Olympic Games program in Los Angeles, putting the sport on the world’s largest stage.
