From June 12th to July 14th, all eyes were fixed on Brazil for the 2014 World Cup tournament. Even fair-weather soccer fans such as myself were drawn into the spectacle that only happens once every four years. Here in the office, we geared up by sharing some of our favorite advertisements:
- Nike: Risk Everything, Winner Stays, and 3D animated action short The Last Game
- McDonald’s: GOL!
- Beats by Dre: The Game Before The Game
Google made this year’s games quite special though, sending a team of doodlers to Brazil to, in their words, “celebrate the essence of the biggest sporting event for the world’s most popular sport—in the moment.” This meant that their team would be creating live, animated doodles based on what teams were playing, who won, the significant plays and calls, and sometimes just good ol’ situational comedy—all told through the quirky “characters” of the Google logo.
Going for Gold
Over sixty animated doodles were created by the end of the tournament (view them all here!), most of which had world-wide reach. Each morning, I found myself looking forward to see what new doodle would make its debut next. Though I loved them all, one of my favorites had to be #27: sneaking in a game under the boss’ nose during the morning office meeting. Those poor Google letters, their Big ‘B’ just didn’t understand! Fortunately at 20|20, our Big ‘B’ understood completely, and the Designer Room became live-stream central for every weekday match.
But with the World Cup over, it’s back to business as usual. Only four more years until the next one, and I already can’t wait to see what they come up with next.
Good games,
Meg