Before the kickoff of the 2018 World Cup, the card company Mastercard created a campaign known as “Goals that change lives”. The goal of the campaign was to raise money for hungry children in Latin America and the Caribbean. Released first as a commercial advertisement, and then as a Twitter advert, Mastercard promised for every goal scored by soccer superstars Lionel Messi and Neymar between June 2018 and March 2020, the company would provide 10,000 meals for children in the above locations. While there was good intent, the message was poorly received due to the conditions around it.
Ten thousand meals is a lot to distribute for one goal. Combine that with a promise of ten thousand for very goal scored by two prolific goal scorers over a 21 month span, and you have the ability to feed so many children in need. On that idea of ability though is where Mastercard received a lot of criticism. Many around the world expressed their dissatisfaction with the advert, citing that if the company has the financial capacity to combat world hunger, why make it some kind of game with incentives where the fate of millions of children rests in the hands of two soccer players.
Not only did Mastercard fail to see the ignorance in their advert, but they also were unable to think of what could go wrong with the players or their games. While both their club and country teams heavily rely on Messi and Neymar, there is no guarantee they win and score in every game. In fact, at the 2018 World Cup alone, both players failed to make it past the quarterfinals, leaving 3 games where both players were not participants (semifinals, 3rd place game, and finals) and thus no meals for the children. Along with that, there is also no assurance that the two players play in every game. Neymar alone missed three to four months of games in the spring of 2019 due to an injury he suffered. Messi on the other hand has missed his team’s last 3 games and is still out due to injury. Between the two in time missed, there is at least 10 goals not being scored which equates to 100,000 meals.
Thankfully, this advert was pulled after it received so much negative attention. A lot of good could have come from this ad, as the two players tend to score between 20-50 goals in any given year. However, it is not okay to put incentive on a global crisis such child hunger where they are being told their meals are only promised if something as trivial as a soccer game, in the grand scheme of things, goes their way.