Powerade - Power Your Fate

• Agency: WPP Open X and AKQA
• Client: Powerade
• Category: Video Design — Commercial
• Location: London, United Kingdom
• Project Brief: Create a global campaign that celebrates preparation, determination, and athletic performance across major sporting events.

Most sports drink commercials show you a training montage and call it inspiration. "Power Your Fate" skips that entirely and shows you where Yamal and Rodrygo actually come from, visualizing their preparation through the cultural art forms of their home countries rather than a generic sequence of drills and sweat.

The painted portrait of Yamal against the stadium backdrop reads like a mural rather than a product shot. It puts him inside football mythology rather than outside looking in, which is a stranger and more interesting place for a sports drink commercial to start.

The alebrije carrying the football over a crowd at golden hour is the shot that stays with you. It brings Mexican folk art into the film without reducing it to set dressing, which is harder to pull off than it looks.

AKQA keeps the text minimal and lets the voiceover do the closing work: "Don't wait to be chosen, choose to be ready." It lands because the images have already earned it by the time the line arrives.