Michelob Ultra Tallies Lionel Messi's 20-Year World Cup Legacy
This article originally appeared on Adweek, July 20th, 2026
Argentina may have lost to Spain at the FIFA World Cup 2026 final, but one of its players still stole the spotlight throughout the tournament: Lionel Messi.
Michelob Ultra, the official beer sponsor of the tournament, celebrated the G.O.A.T.’s legendary 20-year World Cup career in an ad released soon after the final match on July 19.
Created by Wieden+Kennedy New York and directed by W+K’s Zak DeLange, “Tab Closed” is a playful take on a bar tab. But instead of drink orders, the spot tallies Messi’s World Cup accomplishments, from matches won to goals scored to records broken.
Michelob Ultra ran the creative on its digital and social channels and on Telemundo following the post-game show, as well as on billboards in Times Square, New York, which depicted Messi with the tab of his accolades.
“Messi’s World Cup career is almost impossible to sum up, which is exactly what made the idea so exciting. We took something as ordinary as closing out a bar tab and used it to itemize 20 years of extraordinary moments: goals, records, trophies, memories, and everything he’s meant to the game. The simplicity of the idea allowed the scale of his legacy to speak for itself,” W+K New York copywriter Borja Eizmendi and art director Randy Diaz said in a statement.
Messi was a fixture in World Cup advertising this year. According to data provided to ADWEEK by audience measurement platform System1, he appeared in 18 of the 80 major World Cup campaigns tested across the U.S., U.K., and Argentina.
The figures put Messi in nearly a quarter (22%) of the biggest World Cup campaigns, including ads from top-tier FIFA sponsors Adidas, Michelob Ultra, and Lay’s.
