Paddy Power has launched a new World Cup campaign called "Nobody Does Football Better Than Us," rolling out a 60-second hero ad that pairs Danny Dyer with Rob Lowe and will debut during the Champions League Final on May 30 across the UK and Ireland.
Created by BBH London and directed by Max Barden through Anonymous Content, the spot casts Dyer as the voice of English football culture and Lowe as the glossier American foil. The film also features former players Peter Crouch and Mick McCarthy. The bookmaker’s marketing director, Leah Spears, said the brief was to make something "provocative, entertaining and rooted in football culture." In the ad Dyer shouts, "It can’t go on like this, can it?" and McCarthy replies, simply, "it can."
The commercial frames a straightforward contrast: American spectacle against English fandom. It leans on the World Cup’s North American setting and the tournament’s looming start to amplify that gulf — an obvious backdrop for a campaign that will run across TV, digital, social and out-of-home channels and include a special build that goes live in Hackney, London on June 11.
The film’s cast complicates the neat binary the ad sets up. Lowe, who plays the exuberant American presence, offers several lines that pull the joke in different directions. "If I’m in America, I call it soccer, but if I’m anywhere other than America, I call it football. Football becomes American Football when I’m abroad too," he says in the film. He also praises the Premier League experience — "Nothing compares to a home game in the Premier League. It’s pretty hard to top that" — and singles out Stamford Bridge as "pretty sick." His comments undercut a pure culture-war framing by admitting admiration for the traditions the ad ostensibly lampoons.
Lowe’s on-set remarks about Dyer add another layer. "I have to confess I had never seen him in anything! I’d heard he was a bit of a legend over here in the UK and I have to agree, he is really funny, genuine, and a very good actor," Lowe says. "When he walked on set, within about four minutes I'm thinking he’s got this energy and presence about him. Completely magnetic." Those acknowledgements make the spot less about a winner-takes-all debate and more about trading jabs between two distinct sporting cultures.
Practical details matter for viewers who want to catch the ad when it lands: the 60-second hero runs during the Champions League Final telecast on May 30, then appears across Paddy Power’s TV, digital, social and outdoor buys. A physical installation in Hackney is set for June 11, timed to build momentum as the World Cup approaches.
What to watch when the campaign goes live is clear. The immediate measure of success will not be a single line in the advert but the conversation it sparks across the UK, Ireland and beyond: whether audiences treat the spot as lighthearted banter or a clumsy national jab, and whether Lowe’s own disclaimers — calling the sport "soccer" in America while praising the Premier League elsewhere — softens the punchline. The Champions League Final and the Hackney build will provide the first readings of that conversation, with social reaction and out-of-home impressions showing whether Paddy Power’s provocative bet pays off.
