Kylian Mbappé stars in Nike's latest spot, and it is 'scary good'

Just as the FIFA Club World Cup kicks off across American cities, Nike has dropped its latest weapon in the war for football hearts and minds: SCARY GOOD, a horror-tinged campaign that promises to give opponents nightmares—and hopefully give Nike's struggling sales figures some much-needed life support.

The campaign's breakout star is Kyller Instinct, a deliciously twisted short film that follows a traumatised goalkeeper and a hospital ward full of defenders who've recently had the misfortune of facing Kylian Mbappé.

It's part psychological thriller, part football fever dream, and entirely on-brand for a company desperately trying to remind the world why they once owned the beautiful game's creative space. 

The timing couldn't be more strategic. As the FIFA Club World Cup unfolds across the US, the brand is betting that its signature blend of cinematic storytelling and athletic mystique can cut through the noise.

The campaign features nine films total, each channelling a blend of horror and satire, starring what Nike calls "the game's most dominant attackers".

Beyond Mbappé, the campaign films will also feature other football superstars, including Ronaldinho Gaúcho, Giulia Gwinn, Erling Haaland, Kerolin, Sam Kerr, Cole Palmer, Vini Jr, Salma Paralluelo, and Alexia Putellas. It's an impressive roster, though whether it can match the cultural impact of Nike's greatest hits remains to be seen.

Nike's football ads legacy is unmatched

This latest effort arrives with enormous shoes to fill, quite literally. Nike's football advertising legacy reads like a masterclass in sports marketing, beginning with campaigns that didn't just sell boots but sold dreams.

The journey arguably peaked with 1998's Brazil Airport, a masterpiece that transformed a mundane airport terminal into a stage for Brazilian footballing magic. Featuring legends like Ronaldo, Roberto Carlos, and Denilson, the ad captured something ineffable about football's capacity for spontaneous joy. 

Twelve years later, Nike raised the stakes with Write the Future, a cinematic tour de force that premiered ahead of the 2010 World Cup. The ad read like a butterfly effect thesis disguised as football advertising. A single moment—a goal, a miss, a tackle—rippled outward to reshape entire destinies.

Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Didier Drogba, and others became unwitting protagonists in interconnected vignettes that explored football's capacity to create heroes and villains in the span of seconds. The message was clear: in football, as in life, everything hangs on a knife's edge.

And then came 2014's Winner Stays, a love letter to football's democratic spirit that premiered before the Brazil World Cup. The concept was brilliantly simple: a group of friends playing pickup football in a park, each imagining themselves as their heroes.

As the game intensified, reality and fantasy merged, with everyday players transforming into Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar Jr., Zlatan Ibrahimović, and others. The ad captured something universal: the moment when amateur dreams collide with professional fantasies, when the park becomes Wembley and every player becomes a legend.

Money matters

These creative triumphs feel increasingly distant when measured against Nike's current reality.

The sporting goods giant's latest quarterly results paint a sobering picture: full-year revenues dropped to $46.3 billion, down 10% year-over-year, while fourth-quarter revenues fell 12% to $11.1 billion. Nike Direct revenues, once a growth engine, declined 14% to $4.4 billion in the fourth quarter alone.

The struggles have prompted some soul-searching at Nike headquarters. As the company's new CEO, Elliott Hill, admitted during a December earnings call, "We lost our obsession with sport." His prescription? "Moving forward, we will lead with sport and put the athletes at the centre of every decision because that fuels our culture."

As the rest of the ad films are gradually rolled out, it remains to be seen if the campaign will shine like the earlier iconic ad films from the house of ad films. But, to the delight of many football fans, it is refreshing to see the brand add to its footballing heritage.