The ad at the center of Adidas’s mammoth FIFA World Cup campaign stars not only the usual soccer suspects but Timothée Chalamet as an amateur but intense three-on-three manager, the WSJ Leadership Institute’s Katie Deighton reports.

The five-minute video shows Bad Bunny and Lionel Messi watching as the likes of Trinity Rodman and Jude Bellingham take on a local team that once upset ’90s stars including David Beckham and Zinedine Zidane, whose loss is depicted in faux flashbacks.

In addition to running a lot of traditional advertising pegged to the tournament, Adidas is planning live events in cities from Atlanta to L.A. as it tries to close the gap with Nike.

The U.S. World Cup marketing effort “is just so much larger in size, scope and scale, resources, money, energy, effort, than it has been in the past,” Adidas marketing executive Chris Murphy told Katie.

I asked Katie for more on the strategy.

Adidas seems very excited about using this year’s World Cup to grow in the U.S. Are we in North America about to be absolutely swamped with World Cup marketing?

Katie: Only to the extent that we might have felt swamped by Olympics marketing in 2024—that is to say, yes, a lot of ads from sponsors will be pegged to the tournament, but it doesn’t look like the World Cup will lead to more advertising here overall.

That’s according to marketing research firm WARC Media, which measures and forecasts incremental advertising during World Cup years. Globally, the event is expected to generate an extra $10.5 billion in ad spending in the second quarter of this year, but that boost is unlikely to make a dent in the gargantuan, soccer-ambivalent U.S. market, WARC found.

Saying that, we can expect host cities to be coated in soccer ads at least momentarily. I’m sure the billboards along the New Jersey Turnpike will be clamored over like never before.

What’s motivating Adidas to spend significant sums to bring in not only all those soccer stars but the star of “Wonka” and “Dune”?

Katie: Adidas seems confident that this is its moment to go after the U.S. market, but not just because of the World Cup.

Nike, its Goliath of a rival, is going through something of an existential crisis. Sabastian Sawe just became the first person to run a marathon in under two hours, wearing Adidas running shoes. Oasis last year toured North America all but wrapped in the three stripes. I still can’t make it through a subway ride without spotting a pair of Sambas. Adidas in 2026 is prepared to spend big to capture the attention not just of sports fans, but of the general, potentially Classics-wearing American public.

More World Cup: Lay’s is reviving the “No Lay’s, No Game” theme that it introduced for the UEFA Champions League for a campaign around the World Cup. Stars include Thierry Henry, Lionel Messi, Alexia Putellas, David Beckham and—in the non-footballer/Timothée Chalamet role—Steve Carell. The campaign continues on WhatsApp in the form of a giant “Epic Watch Party”  channel. [DesignRush]

Planet Fitness is putting off its resolution to raise prices after getting fewer-than-expected signups in the crucial period after New Year’s.

The chain also cut growth projections for the year even as it reported a sharply higher first quarter, Rob Curran writes for The Wall Street Journal.

“2026 is off to a slower than expected start from a net-member-growth perspective as we faced internal and external headwinds during our peak sign-up period,” Chief Executive Colleen Keating said in a statement. “As a result, we are sharpening our marketing to prioritize capturing demand and driving net member growth.”

The planned increase in prices for Black Card premium memberships will wait until the company completes a broader pricing review, Keating said.

The Green Spot, in Santa Cruz, Calif., has accomplished something that is getting rarer and rarer these days, Elizabeth Garone reports: It is making money as a cannabis dispensary.

Heavy taxes, a lack of traditional banking services and illicit competition make legal cannabis an unforgiving business. In 2024, the most recent numbers available, less than a third of cannabis retailers nationwide showed a profit, and roughly 40% were just breaking even, according to Whitney Economics.

The Green Spot has done better partly by making its customer experience more welcoming than at many other cannabis stores. Instead of securing products in locked cases or in closed-off sections, it creates the feeling of a spacious grocery store.

The Green Spot also uses staff members to act as guards rather than hiring an outside company, both keeping costs down and creating a more welcoming atmosphere.

“People walk in, they get their ID checked at the door, and then they’re free to walk around the store, pick up the products, pull their phone out and look at the ingredients,” says Johnny Hamala, one of the three current owners.

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