• by Sarah Mahoney , Staff Writer, Yesterday

You know who will never suffer crushing emotional disappointment when their team loses in the coming FIFA World Cup games? People who don’t have a favorite team and just cheer on winners. The bandwagon effect is so pronounced that Lay’s is making it the ultimate snack statement to stand on, and the finale in its multiphase campaign before next month’s kickoff.

Starring actor Will Ferrell as a sort of designated soccer dunce, and Marshawn Lynch, who proves even real football players can feign interest in the matches, “Bandwagon”  encourages fans to join the fever and simply switch allegiances as soon as a team gets knocked out. The just-launched campaign even recruits the ubiquitous David Beckham, who is everywhere like crabgrass in FIFA campaigns, to drive the actual bandwagon, mostly on the wrong side of the road.

While it has always made sense for Lay’s, the world’s largest food brand, to partner with the world's most popular sport, game hypes in America typically lose a lot in translation. Will flipping the derogatory “bandwagon fan” label, which typically stands for fickle, uncommitted faux fandom, more interested in trophies than the actual sport, work?

Denise Truelove, senior vice president of marketing for Lay’s in the U.S., hopes so, and that the campaign will boost how often U.S. consumers reach for a bag of Lay’s.

When the team presented the concept at a recent Lay’s Town Hall, “people just erupted in laughter. This idea -- just pick another team! -- really resonates with the American who's not a fanatic.”

Truelove cites recent sports industry research that found that while 75% of Americans said they will tune in to the World Cup, we’re still anemic fans: Only 26% plan to watch “a lot” of matches. She acknowledges that soccer’s appeal is fast-growing here, and as more young people play, their parents are being drawn into fandom. “But it is still only the fourth-most watched sport,” she tells CPG Insider.

The effort, from agency 72andSunny, is distinct from the ongoing “No Lay’s. No Game,” a global platform now in its fourth year and still going strong.

“Bandwagon” also includes on-the-ground activations, with the real bandwagon making stadium appearances in New York, Los Angeles and Dallas, bringing talent, product sampling and interactive moments, as well as big screen TVs for game viewing. Out-of-home ads in those cities will also amplify the “Bandwagon fans never lose” message.

This phase builds on the “Epic Watch Party” campaign launched in March, a WhatsApp group text between legends like Alexia Putellas, Lionel Messi, Beckham, and Thierry Henry, with actor Steve Carell joining in as the designated Yank doofus, who knows next to nothing about the beautiful game.

This new phase builds on that text-driven attempt at intimacy, which now has 4 million followers, which also helps the brand shift from audience targeting to behavior targeting, reaching them on their phones -- sometimes even while shopping in grocery stores -- to stoke enthusiasm for the coming games.

Will using the beloved Ferrell to flip the script on casual fandom pay off? Truelove acknowledges that “Bandwagon” will do little to increase awareness – this is a brand everyone has heard of: “By some measures, we are told we have higher penetration in American homes than toilet paper.” The real test, she says, will be -- after the “oles” have quieted later this summer -- if the campaign achieves its goal of increasing growth opportunities through occasion penetration.