Brazilian soccer star Ronaldinho was the FIFA World Player of the Year back in 2004 and 2005, but the 32-year-old is starting to show his age a bit and didn’t even get placed on the nation’s Olympic team. He left his last club team, Flamengo, and sued them, only to be countersued.

Now he’s got another problem. He has a sponsorship deal with Coca-Cola that paid him $750,000 annually through 2014. That should be a good thing, right? Well, it was until Ronaldinho was spotted having a cola at a news conference. A Pepsi cola. Not his strongest move.Continue reading...

Sure, Nike's "Write the Future" ad is being heralded as one of the greatest ambush marketing moves of all time (including by Nike's VP of brand, Trevor Edwards). It has been viewed 16 million-plus times just on YouTube, and can be seen playing all over World Cup-related broadcasts. A critical success, boatloads of exposure to the brand. But there's grumbling afoot: is the Nike ad cursing its stars? And if so, by the conclusion of the Cup in July, could it come to be seen as a joke? Many of the stars (and teams) featured in the now iconic ad are slumping, tragically. See what we mean after the jump.Continue reading...