Logos bei Live-Übertragungen: Studie: WM mit Werbung für Ungesundes und Riskantes geflutet

During the 2026 FIFA World Cup, viewers were bombarded with advertisements for potentially unhealthy or risky products, according to a study titled "The Price of the Beautiful Game" by a research team led by Raffaello Rossi from the University of Bristol. Over 93,400 logos were traced, promoting unhealthy or otherwise problematic products, and the average number of such logos per minute across all 104 World Cup matches was nearly nine, or one every 6.7 seconds.

The logos were classified into five categories: unhealthy food and drinks, alcohol, gambling, prediction markets, and cryptocurrencies. A majority of the ads were for unhealthy food and drinks, making up more than 70 percent of the problem ads. The study, based on a KI-assisted method, revealed that nearly a quarter (23 percent) of the match broadcast time featured ads for harmful products.

What stood out was how directly these logo ads were integrated into the match images, leaving viewers unable to avoid them without missing crucial parts of the game. Co-author Elisa Becker from the University of Oxford emphasized the global crisis of childhood obesity and diet-related illnesses, while Rossi noted the numerous studies linking marketing for unhealthy products, alcohol, and gambling to increased consumption and various health, social, and financial harms, especially among children and adolescents.

The researchers also criticized that the central images were broadcast in countries where certain advertised products or services were not permitted or their advertising was restricted, such as gambling market advertising in Germany where it is blocked due to regulatory oversight. They highlighted that FIFA could have used technology to replace ads regionally, as UEFA had done with the 2024 European Championship.