Zlatan Ibrahimovitch was always rumoured to be coming out of retirement from Sweden. To promote Visa members’ access-all-areas to World Cup stadiums, we pulled a prank on the global football audience.

We asked Zlatan to mention in interviews that he was going to the World Cup. Nothing specific, just abstract comments like: “Without Zlatan the World Cup is nothing, with Zlatan it is everything”.

The media took the bait, and Zlatan was questioned by dozens of football journalists, plus Jimmy Kimmel. Speculation continued across podcasts, fan forums and social media until the manager of Sweden was forced to make a statement denying Zlatan’s return.

Our broadcast campaign was then introduced on Sky Sports as if it was a real press conference. I spent days watching interviews so I could write in fluent Zlatan. One day Zlatan said “Here comes the man who knows me better than I know myself”. He was fantastic throughout, and a day after leaving our shoot in Manchester, he made his LA Galaxy debut and scored from the halfway line. For Zlatan, a tap-in.

Directed by those other great Swedes, Traktor.

 https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/breaking-sweden-confirm-zlatan-ibrahimovic-12431741