A round up of reactive ads from the Euros

Originally published on O2’s internal Workplace on 5 July

Some great activity from brands and organisations as England reached the final.

• British Heart Foundation — turned around a TV spot in 24 hours following the shocking events of Denmark’s first game, when swift on-pitch medical attention saved Christian Erikson’s life.
• Specsavers — always quick off the mark when they see an opportunity mocked up an eye test with “It’s coming home”
• Aldi — reinterpreted their shopping basket as a goal
• National centre for domestic violence — powerful stats and images highlighting the impact football results can have on domestic violence
• Migration museum — post images of the England line up and results without migration
• Stonewall — celebrated users sharing praise for Jordan Henderson, England’s fourth goal scorer, who wore rainbow laces and during the week had supported a non-binary fan “this is what an ally looks like”
• Boxpark — with the popularity of the “Southgate you’re the one” remix of Atomic Kitten’s “Whole Again” the band joined fans at Boxpark Croydon (street food bar) for a performance during the quarter-final!
• Grind (coffee bar chain) have changed their sign to read “It’s coming home”
• Ikea created a limited edition product — a trophy-shaped glass
• Royal Mail reposted from an asset used for the World Cup of a wrapped ball — if it ain’t broke don’t fix it!
• Tesco tried to claim their name’s origin was based on It’s Coming Home!
• The Sun advertised in the Danish red top paper B.T. A better ad for a bacon company to run?
• Dettol ran with “It’s coming (to a clean) home”
• Deliveroo mocked up an Italian takeaway on its app
• British Airways added an “It’s coming home” welcome back message in Arrivals
• Volkswagon unveiled a Pride strip for its tiny car for the final. Some have criticised this for rainbow washing, especially as there are few openly gay footballers and next year the World Cup is hosted in Qatar where it’s illegal to be gay
• Heineken continues its rivalry campaign on social with a conversation ad — way too many hashtags and lame poll
• Tesco closed stores on Sunday early so staff could get home to watch the match
• Lidl — optimistically announced a late opening on Monday to give people time to celebrate
• Carlsberg were mentioned in a viral tweet “if Carlsberg did teachers” when a headteacher offered kids a lie in on Monday. The power of an iconic tagline
• EE gave customers free data from 6pm — midnight on Sunday and supported with a TTL campaign
• Papa John’s promised fans 1,966 free pizzas if England were victorious
• Byron Burger offered free burgers to anyone with the same surname as an England player
• Google — had some fun with Search results
• Camden Brewery shared a promo image of their Italian Pilsner with a caption “too soon?”
• TFL posted a message on timetable boards saying “It’s coming home DELAYED. Expected arrival 2022”
• Royal Mail — changed their image of a ball being posted home to “Rome”
• ITV reacted to the racist hate speech at players with a subtle black & white image “Together we will never lose”
• Pizza Express — posted a good morning message to everyone except those giving racist abuse
• Savills dealt with a reputation crisis with one of their staff identified as making racist comments on social

Please share any you’ve particularly enjoyed in the comments!