Ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup kicking off on June 11 across the US, Mexico and Canada, Samsung has recruited the man who knows a thing or two about historic football moments to sell its latest QLED TVs. Enter Thierry Henry, France's all-time leading scorer, two-time Premier League champion and 1998 World Cup winner.
The 20-second spot from BBH Singapore is self-aware and fleet-footed. Henry appears in various personas inexplicably, as an astronaut on the moon as he watches himself on a Samsung TV.
It's not his first Samsung appearance. In 2018, he fronted the brand's QLED campaign ahead of the 2018 World Cup in Russia, making this something of a homecoming.
The stakes are not small. The 2022 Qatar World Cup reached five billion people across all platforms, and this year's edition is expected to draw 6.5 million attendees in person. Samsung has previously sponsored major clubs including Chelsea FC, Inter Milan, Olympiakos, and the Brazilian national football team.
The campaign will launch across 25 European markets spanning TV, digital, social and in-store activations.
"As a global icon who demands nothing less than technical brilliance, Thierry knows that for the moments that define history, you need the gold standard of television. If it’s worth watching, it’s worth watching on a Samsung," said Sascha Kuntze, chief creative officer, BBH Singapore.
Campaign's take: Thierry Henry is a safe pair of hands. His star power is recognisable across generations. But celebrity plus product plus sporting moment is a formula as old as advertising itself. Henry is charming, BBH's craft is clean, overall the spot is slick and clears the bar. But for a brand of Samsung's scale, at a moment as culturally charged as the World Cup, clearing the bar was never really the point.
Credits:
Agency: BBH Singapore
Production Thierry Henry
Production: 20 STARS Film
Client: Samsung Electronics Europe
Source: Campaign Asia-Pacific
