Instead of creating a separate football setting for the campaign, La Pausa uses real match images captured during live broadcasts. Each hydration break becomes an opportunity to place an anti-plastic message directly into the football moment.

La Pausa Finds a Print Campaign Inside the Match

Hydration breaks are a familiar part of football. Players stop, take a drink and wait for play to resume. For La Pausa, that short interruption becomes the central media opportunity.

The campaign takes these real moments and transforms them into print advertising. Players remain at the centre of the images, while the campaign message draws attention to what happens to the plastic bottle after the water has been consumed.

Its central thought is simple:

“The water is consumed. The bottle is not.”

The message does not need a long explanation. The contrast between the short life of the water and the much longer life of the plastic creates the environmental argument.

Real-Time Advertising Using Real World Cup Moments

La Pausa is particularly interesting as a real-time advertising idea because the campaign is built around moments that cannot be completely planned in advance.

The images come from live FIFA World Cup 2026 broadcasts. The players, positions and match situations are determined by what is happening on the pitch.

That gives the print campaign an immediate connection with the tournament. Rather than using generic football photography, La Pausa places its environmental message inside moments that football audiences are already watching.

It is a simple way of connecting print advertising with the speed and relevance normally associated with digital campaigns.

Making Single-Use Plastic Part of the Picture

The environmental issue in La Pausa is familiar: single-use plastic.

Water may be consumed within minutes, but the plastic bottle does not disappear when the match continues. By placing this contrast next to images of players drinking water, the campaign makes the packaging part of the story.

That is where the campaign’s visual approach becomes useful. The football image immediately establishes the context, while the message changes how the viewer looks at the bottle.

There is no need for a dramatic environmental scene. A normal hydration break is enough.

World Cup Advertising With an Environmental Message

The FIFA World Cup 2026 gives La Pausa an unusually relevant setting for its environmental advertising message.

Hydration breaks naturally create moments when water consumption is visible. The campaign uses those moments to talk about the waste associated with the packaging.

The idea can also travel beyond the stadium. Because the campaign is built from match images, the executions can be seen wherever audiences are following the tournament, including homes, bars and other viewing spaces.

That gives the campaign a useful connection between the live event and the everyday behaviour it is asking people to notice.

Why La Pausa Works as Print Advertising

Many environmental campaigns rely on statistics, dramatic imagery or long explanations. La Pausa takes a more direct route.

The match image gets attention. The hydration break explains why the player is drinking. The message then introduces the environmental concern.

The campaign also benefits from repetition. Hydration breaks are recurring moments within football, so the same communication idea can work across different matches and players without changing its basic message.

For Colectivo Cabos and Granidea, the World Cup becomes the setting, the hydration break becomes the media opportunity and the bottle becomes the subject.

That makes La Pausa a print campaign that is closely tied to its media moment, while keeping the environmental message easy to understand.

Credits
Campaign: La Pausa
Client: Colectivo Cabos
Agency: Granidea
Production: Granidea
Country: Ecuador
Client / Initiative: Colectivo Cabos
Line: More water. Less plastic.
Director: Gabriela Sierra
Executive Creative Director: Sergio Moraga
Art Director: Gabriel Saavedra
Art Director: Jeffrey Yagual
Copywriter: Valeria López
Executive Planning Director: María Paula Mera
Account Team: Priscila Álvarez
Account Manager: Adriana Herrera
Account Manager: Juan Pablo Cortez
Account Manager: Paula Montiel

The intimate wellness brand’s latest global campaign, “Faces,” is built around a simple but striking observation. Football remains one of the few cultural experiences where people openly express anticipation, tension, joy, disbelief, heartbreak, and celebration without hesitation. For a brief moment, emotional restraint disappears and instinct takes over.

That idea sits at the heart of SKYN’s long-standing brand platform, “Feel Everything.”

The Insight Behind “Faces”

Modern life often encourages people to manage emotions, filter reactions, and maintain composure. Sport offers a rare exception.

For ninety minutes and beyond, supporters become completely immersed in the experience. Their reactions are immediate, visible, and shared with those around them. Faces tell the story before words ever do.

According to SKYN, those moments of complete emotional investment closely mirror the feelings experienced during intimacy. Both situations involve vulnerability, anticipation, connection, and emotional release.

The campaign explores that parallel in a way that immediately captures attention.

During and after the game: When Appearances Can Be Deceptive

At first glance, the campaign’s close-up portraits appear intensely intimate.
Eyes are closed. Mouths are open. Breaths seem suspended between anticipation and release.
The initial impression suggests moments of personal intimacy.
The reveal changes everything.

These are not intimate encounters. They are football fans reacting to the emotional highs and lows of the tournament.

Created in partnership with award-winning creative agency L&C, the campaign uses this visual tension to draw attention to the emotional honesty that football can create. The expressions captured are instinctive reactions from supporters who have stopped worrying about how they appear and simply allowed themselves to feel.

The Science Behind Emotional Investment

The campaign also references research that points to the physical impact of football fandom.

A 2026 study published in Scientific Reports found that supporters attending matches in person recorded average heart rates that were 23% higher than those watching elsewhere. During key moments, heart rates exceeded 100 beats per minute.

Researchers described this response as “football fever,” highlighting how deeply emotional experiences can create measurable physical reactions.

For SKYN, those findings reinforce the campaign’s central idea: the strongest human experiences are often both emotional and physical.

Why “Faces” Works

Many tournament-related campaigns focus on teams, rivalries, predictions, or results.

SKYN takes a different route.
Instead of spotlighting competition, the campaign focuses on what happens inside the audience. The tension before a penalty kick. The anticipation of extra time. The eruption of joy after a decisive goal. The heartbreak that follows a missed opportunity.

These are the moments supporters remember long after the final whistle.

By framing football fandom through the lens of emotional expression, “Faces” creates an unexpected connection between sport and intimacy without losing sight of either subject.

During and after the game, Feeling Everything Becomes the Story

The campaign will run globally across social, connected TV, and digital platforms throughout the tournament.

What makes “Faces” memorable is its ability to find a human truth that exists beyond football itself. The campaign suggests that some of life’s most meaningful experiences are the ones where people stop performing, stop filtering, and simply react.

Whether that moment comes through sport, culture, or intimate connection, the emotions that stay with people are often the ones they never planned to show.

And that is exactly what SKYN chooses to celebrate.

Credits
Brand: SKYN
CEO: Laurent Faracci
CGO: Gregory Chabidon
VP Global Marketing & Innovation: Marta Toth
Sr. Global Brand Manager: Michele Martinelli

Advertising Agency: L&C
Chief Creative Officers: Rolando Cordova / Gian Carlo Lanfranco
Executive Creative Director: Bruno Franchino
Associate Creative Directors: Juliana Laborde / Sarah Knutson
Managing Director: Gino Cochella
Account Director: Cesar Bellido
Junior Art Director: Lucciana Bedoya
Executive Producer: Paul Cordova

Production Company: Fertil
Director: Santiago Chavez
Executive Producer: Tarek Kahhat

This campaign is about:
SKYN Condoms, FIFA 2026, 2026 FIFA World Cup Ads, Condom Ads, SKYN Faces Campaign, Football Marketing, Sports Advertising, Creative Campaign, Emotional Storytelling, Intimate Wellness, L&C Agency, Global Campaign, Brand Strategy.

In India, cricket is far more than just a sport—it’s an emotion. From narrow lanes in small towns to bustling city playgrounds, children grow up swinging imaginary bats and dreaming of becoming the next Sachin Tendulkar or MS Dhoni.

For any other sport trying to grow in the country, that dominance creates a serious challenge.

When the NBA began expanding its presence in India, it quickly gained visibility in major cities. However, reaching the grassroots audience—the young generation playing in streets, parks, and open grounds—was a completely different challenge.

To bridge this gap, the league launched a unique campaign called “NBA The Great Indian Dunk.” Instead of forcing basketball into India’s sporting culture, the campaign revealed something remarkable: the spirit of basketball already exists in everyday Indian life.

Executed with a production budget of less than $15,000, the campaign transformed ordinary moments from Indian playgrounds into powerful visual stories. The message was simple yet inspiring—among India’s billion people, the next great basketball player could already be out there.

The Challenge: Growing Basketball in a Cricket-Dominated Nation

Cricket’s Cultural Influence

In India, cricket dominates the sporting landscape like no other game. For decades, it has shaped childhood dreams, national pride, and even advertising narratives.

Because of this overwhelming popularity:

• Most young athletes naturally gravitate toward cricket
• Other sports struggle to gain attention
• Basketball is often perceived as urban, niche, or even foreign

Although the NBA had already begun building awareness through initiatives such as NBA Academy India, the league still needed to establish a deeper connection with everyday Indians.

The real challenge was not awareness—it was relevance and relatability.

The Insight: India Already Moves Like Basketball

Athleticism Hidden in Everyday Play

The creative breakthrough came from observing something incredibly simple.

Across India, children are constantly moving—jumping into ponds, climbing trees, swinging from branches, or leaping across obstacles while playing with friends. These natural movements often resemble the explosive athleticism seen in professional basketball.

In many ways, India already moves like basketball.

This insight became the foundation for “The Great Indian Dunk.”

The campaign captured candid moments of children:

• Jumping into village ponds
• Swinging from tree branches
• Climbing structures and hanging mid-air
• Leaping across natural obstacles

When framed creatively, these everyday actions looked strikingly similar to iconic NBA slam dunks.

The campaign quietly suggested a powerful idea:

If India’s kids already move like basketball players, the next great dunk could come from India itself.

The Creative Idea: Discovering the Dunk in Everyday India

Turning Everyday Moments into Inspiration

Rather than staging dramatic sports scenes, the campaign celebrated authentic, unscripted moments from real Indian life.

Each photograph captured children mid-air—frozen in motion in a way that mirrored legendary basketball dunks.

Interestingly, the images didn’t feature basketball courts or hoops. Instead, they highlighted the raw athletic spirit that naturally exists in childhood play.

Through this storytelling approach, the campaign invited young Indians to imagine something exciting:

• The next basketball star might not come from a professional training academy
• He or she could be playing in a village field or neighborhood street
• The next iconic dunk might already be happening somewhere in India

Instead of promoting a sport directly, the campaign celebrated India’s natural athletic energy.

The Visual Style: Raw, Authentic, and Impactful

Capturing Real India

To bring the concept to life, the campaign commissioned a renowned Indian photographer known for capturing the raw realities of everyday life.

The creative direction focused on authenticity. The images were not staged or overly polished. Instead, they captured genuine moments of movement and emotion.

This approach made the campaign feel honest, relatable, and culturally rooted.

Why Black-and-White Photography Worked

One of the most distinctive creative decisions was the use of black-and-white photography.

In a country famous for its vibrant colors, this choice made the visuals instantly stand out.

The monochrome style helped:

• Highlight motion and physical expression
• Remove distractions from the frame
• Create a timeless and artistic look

Most importantly, it ensured that the viewer’s attention stayed focused on the movement itself, which closely resembled a basketball dunk.

Smart Distribution: Taking the Campaign to the Streets

Rather than relying solely on digital advertising, the NBA adopted a ground-level distribution strategy.

The campaign was placed in locations where young athletes naturally spend time, including:

• Sporting goods stores
• Sports venues
• Neighborhood basketball courts
• Training centers associated with NBA Academy India

Importantly, the campaign reached audiences across tier 1 and tier 2 cities, expanding beyond major metropolitan areas.

This grassroots approach helped position basketball as a sport that could belong anywhere in India, not just in elite urban spaces.

The Results: Changing Perceptions of Basketball

“The Great Indian Dunk” campaign helped reshape how basketball was perceived by Indian audiences.

Instead of appearing as an imported or elite sport, basketball suddenly felt accessible, relatable, and deeply connected to everyday life.

Key outcomes of the campaign included:

• Strengthening the NBA’s emotional connection with Indian audiences
• Encouraging young athletes to explore basketball
• Sparkking conversations about sports beyond cricket

More importantly, the campaign planted a powerful idea in people’s minds:

Among India’s billion-strong population, the next great dunker—or even the next global basketball superstar—could already be out there.

Conclusion

The NBA “The Great Indian Dunk” campaign proved that powerful storytelling does not always require massive budgets or celebrity endorsements.

Sometimes, the most compelling ideas come from observing everyday life.

By capturing authentic moments of Indian childhood and connecting them with the athletic brilliance of basketball, the campaign built a meaningful bridge between India’s playground culture and the global stage of the NBA.

And in doing so, it left audiences with an inspiring thought:

Somewhere in India right now, a child is jumping, climbing, or swinging—
unknowingly practicing their very first dunk.

Credits
Advertising Agency: Leo Burnett Dubai
Client: NBA India
Chief Creative Officer: Kalpesh Patankar
Creative Director: Divyan Kriplani, Kapil Bhimekar
Copy Writer: Farhan Siddique
Art Director: Mohammed Sharique
Photographer: Prashant Godbole

This campaign is about:
NBA Great Indian Dunk Campaign, NBA India Campaign, NBA India Marketing Campaign, Basketball Marketing Campaign India, Sports Marketing Campaigns, NBA Advertising Campaign, Basketball Promotion In India, Sports Advertising, Case Study, Creative Sports Marketing Campaign, Creative Print Ads.