AI is penetrating every area of our lives, so it’s no surprise whatsoever that it’s turned up at one of the biggest events of the year: the Football World Cup. This summer, we’ve seen some of football’s biggest names, past and present, license their likeness into generative AI to produce ad campaigns that wouldn’t have been possible before the technology.
Neymar licensed his to FlareFlow, a microdrama platform, for sixteen AI-produced series timed to the tournament. It's thought to be the first time a footballer of that stature has licensed their image at scale for AI production. Coca-Cola built an AI version of José Mourinho for a daily social series, "José vs. Mourinho", with Mourinho helping to make it. And Adidas de-aged Beckham, Zidane and Del Piero back to their nineties selves for its "Backyard Legends" film, dropping them onto a street pitch next to today's players.
A year ago, most of these would have been written up as a threat. Today, they're campaigns, and good ones at that. There are two things that make them work. The first is creativity. None of these could have been made without AI. You can't de-age three players to their nineties selves, or have two versions of Mourinho argue with each other in real time, any other way. The second is permission. Neymar licensed his likeness. Mourinho helped build his own digital twin. Beckham, Zidane and Del Piero agreed to be de-aged, and the film landed because it was built on real careers and real consent, not a likeness that was lifted and plugged into AI without asking.
That's the whole game. The same tools that made those campaigns can just as easily produce the version we've all seen go wrong: an image used without a licence, a voice cloned without consent, a likeness turning up somewhere the person never agreed to be. When no one has clear visibility on how a likeness is being used, everyone loses: the talent, the brand and the agency. The difference between a highly commended campaign and a lawsuit isn't the technology but whether or not the use was licensed, tracked and fairly paid for.
That's why I think this matters beyond football. These ads are offering an early, very public look at what the next few years hold when AI and talent likeness come together and are used properly. A player's image has always been valuable. AI is now able to multiply the ways that value can be created, and the ways it can quietly disappear. For brands, that means new campaign inventory at a fraction of the cost of a traditional shoot. For agencies, it means new ways to extend the lifecycle of a deal, and the ability to monitor whether content is running within its agreed usage terms, not just trust that it is. And for talent and their management, it means revenue from uses of their image that simply wouldn't have been possible before. Done right, this isn't only about protecting what already exists, it's about creating new value for everyone involved.
The bit the industry is still missing is the infrastructure underneath all of it. A licence is only worth as much as your ability to see whether it's being honoured. One Neymar deal with one platform might be manageable but a full roster, dozens of brand partners and a growing list of tools that can generate a convincing likeness in seconds isn’t something any individual or team can manage successfully on their own. Talent, their management and the brands working with them need a way to price, monitor and manage how an image is used, and to know that when it is, the right people get paid. That's the rights layer we’ve built at TrueRights, and this World Cup is the clearest sign yet of why it needs to exist.
The clubs, leagues, agencies and brands who move first will be the ones who treat licensing as a way to build value, not just defend it. That shift is coming either way. We’re here to help the industry get there on its own terms.
If you're a rights holder, an agency or a brand thinking about how your talent shows up in an AI-enabled world, I'd love to talk. Reach out on LinkedIn or email me at harry@truerights.com.
