As FIFA World Cup 2026 approaches (June 11–July 19), AB InBev is executing its most aggressive alcohol marketing campaign yet, leveraging its official sponsorship to bombard millions of spectators across 16 North American cities with relentless beer promotion.
Grupo Modelo, AB InBev’s Mexican subsidiary, has unveiled what Mexico News Daily describes as “an aggressive plan to put its flagship brands in stadiums, fan zones, corner stores and restaurants” across Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey. Alejandro Gershberg, Grupo Modelo’s sponsorship director, made the company’s intentions explicit: “We have very high expectations of delivering the best experience ever seen at a World Cup, and we think that Mexico will clearly be the best of the three venues.” In practice, “best experience” means maximum alcohol saturation.
Mexico is just one front. For World Cup 2026, AB InBev is deploying a multi-brand strategy targeting different demographics across the continent. Budweiser will carry global brand messaging across all markets, while Corona and Modelo specifically target Mexican audiences. Michelob Ultra has been positioned to appeal to US consumers. Behind all of it sits a global marketing budget of $7.2 billion in 2024, with an estimated $250 million annually dedicated to sports sponsorships alone.
Not everyone in Mexico is on board. In May 2025, Mexico City legislator Jesús Sesma proposed banning all alcohol advertising at sports venues – a direct challenge to AB InBev’s plans and a sign of growing resistance to Big Alcohol’s infiltration of sporting spaces.
A Proven Playbook
AB InBev’s World Cup exploitation follows a pattern with documented results. During the Brazil 2014 tournament, AB InBev sales spiked by 140 million litres. The 2018 World Cup saw Budweiser revenue jump 10.1% outside the United States. Even in Qatar 2022, despite significant restrictions on alcohol sales, the company achieved a 9.9% volume increase during matches.
Most egregiously, FIFA successfully pressured Brazil in 2012 to overturn its decade-old ban on alcohol sales at sporting venues – specifically to accommodate AB InBev’s Budweiser. This infamous “Budweiser bill” demonstrated how Big Alcohol uses international sporting bodies to override public health protections, setting a dangerous precedent for future tournaments. The 2026 plans suggest that precedent is now standard operating procedure.
Beyond Football: The Mega-Events Strategy
World Cup 2026 represents one piece of a comprehensive strategy to attach alcohol to every major sporting event on the planet. AB InBev has been FIFA’s beer sponsor for nearly 40 years. The company has extended its Olympics partnership through 2032, using Corona Cero to maintain brand presence while claiming to promote so-called “responsible consumption.” As the official beer partner for ICC Cricket through 2027, AB InBev is targeting new markets in India, Africa, and Europe. Despite losing exclusivity at the Super Bowl, AB InBev still dominates with 2.5 to 3 minutes of advertising time annually across multiple brands.
The company’s own leadership describes this in strikingly candid terms. CEO Michel Doukeris has declared that “beer and sports are better together”, while the company’s official strategy outlines a “megabrand and mega platform strategy by connecting beer with global events that consumers love.” Chief Marketing Officer Marcel Marcondes boasts about being “deeply connected to fans and football all over the world.”
The BigAlcohol.exposed Annual Report 2024, “From Sports to Screens,” identifies sports sponsorships as “one of the keystones” of Big Alcohol’s marketing activities – a way of “infiltrating trusted spaces from sports to screens” to create a pervasive presence that normalises alcohol use.
The evidence of harm is well documented. Research shows that sports sponsorship exposes millions – including children – to alcohol marketing. The 2018 FIFA World Cup delivered 3.3 billion alcohol brand impressions in the UK alone, including 385 million to children. Mexico, the United States, and Canada can expect similar saturation in 2026.
This strategy normalises alcohol use at family-friendly events, associates alcohol with athletic achievement and national pride, targets young people who idolise athletes and sporting culture, and undermines local public health protections through international pressure. Each percentage increase in sales represents thousands more people exposed to alcohol harm.
The Bottom Line
AB InBev‘s World Cup 2026 campaign represents the scale of Big Alcohol’s sports marketing strategy laid bare – exploiting humanity’s shared love of sport to normalise and promote a product that causes immense harm.
When AB InBev says it is “creating moments of cheers,” the sales data tell a more straightforward story: each World Cup has delivered measurable spikes in alcohol consumption and profit. With 104 matches across three countries and an expected 6.5 million spectators, World Cup 2026 is shaping up to be the largest alcohol marketing operation in sporting history – and the public health consequences will follow.
Sources
AB InBev. (2024, November 25). AB InBev Becomes Official Beer Partner of FIFA Club World Cup 2025™. Business Wire.
Gershberg, A. (2024, February). Grupo Modelo’s 2026 World Cup strategy for Mexico: Lots of beer. Mexico News Daily.
Mexico Business News. (2026, January 7). 2026 World Cup to Drive Record Beer Sales in Host Cities.
Sesma, J. (2025, May 25). Mexico Proposes Ban on Junk Food, Alcohol Ads at Sporting Events. Mexico Business News.