MasterCard To Release Mascot Campaign During UEFA Champions League

MasterCard will release a campaign during next week's UEFA Champions League quarterfinals "highlighting its role sponsoring player mascots for the first time," according to James Swift of MARKETING MAGAZINE. The work, "a series of 12 chronological idents," was created by ad firm McCann London, which has been working with MasterCard since '98. The idents "chart the journey of a young boy picked to be one of the 22 player mascots who walk hand-in-hand with footballers onto the pitch" at the start of a Champions League match. Each ident ends with the tagline, "A match they'll never forget: Priceless." MasterCard has sponsored Champions League player mascots since '94, "but this is the first time that the financial services corporation has released a TV spot advertising its involvement" (MARKETING MAGAZINE, 4/3).