Hernán Tantardini grew up in Argentina, where soccer was a way of life. But in the U.S., where he’s now the CMO of PepsiCo’s Lay’s and Food Portfolio, he knows the culture around soccer is different. But as FIFA World Cup games are played throughout the U.S., Americans are increasingly engaged and excited. A study earlier this year published by Sports Business Journal found that 75% of Americans expected to follow the tournament, and 26% planned to watch “a lot” of matches.I talked to Tantardini about how Lay’s is capturing the traditional American approach to soccer fandom—as well as the more diehard enthusiasm associated with fans in the rest of the world—and keeping consumers interested and engaged throughout the tournament. An excerpt from our conversation is later in this newsletter.Until next time.This is the published version of Forbes’ CMO newsletter, which offers the latest news for chief marketing officers and other messaging-focused leaders. Click here to get it delivered to your inbox every Wednesday. Big DealsThe Comcast/NBC Universal building in Los Angeles.Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times via Getty ImagesNBCUniversal will be just an entertainment company again. Comcast announced this week that it plans to spin off its division including NBCUniversal and Sky. Mike Cavanagh, current co-CEO of Comcast, will become CEO of the new NBCUniversal. On the investor call about the plan on Monday, Comcast co-CEO Brian Roberts said the deal was “absolutely not” about getting the two halves of the company ready for M&A, but to “put each company in the strongest position to create value, fully monetize its assets and aggressively pursue its own organic growth strategies.”Analysts have scoffed at that explanation, saying it’s a ripe atmosphere for big deals, the New York Times reports. NBCUniversal includes Universal Pictures, Universal theme parks, the NBC network, Peacock, Bravo, Telemundo and Europe’s Sky network. (Comcast spun off several of its cable channels—which include CNBC, USA and what’s now known as MS Now—last year.) Forbes senior contributor David Bloom parses whether Netflix may want to take a look at these assets—though no deals could take place until the spinoff is complete.But it’s been a fraught environment for media deals under President Donald Trump’s administration, Deadline reports. While Trump has been more willing to approve mega-mergers than previous administrations, he has paid close attention to those involving the media, and have been approved after actions to appease him—like CBS’s $16 million settlement over the editing of a “60 Minutes” interview before the Paramount Skydance deal was greenlit. While Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos said the president didn’t intervene in its unsuccessful bid to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, Trump and Justice Department officials met with Netflix and began an antitrust probe before Warner Bros. called off the deal, choosing instead to sell to Trump-aligned Paramount Skydance.Now TrendingIt’s America’s 250th birthday week, and enthusiasm is lackluster, to put it generously. Trump’s “Great American State Fair” to celebrate on Washington, D.C.’s National Mall is drawing low attendance numbers and criticism for its haphazard displays, power failures and political overtones. In a Gallup poll, just a third of respondents said they are “extremely proud” to be Americans, the lowest reading since Gallup began polling on the issue 25 years ago. Another 20% say they are “very proud” to be Americans. Not surprisingly, given Trump’s excessively partisan style of governing, pride breaks along party lines. Seven out of 10 Republicans say they are “extremely proud,” while 28% of independents and 14% of Democrats feel the same.Given that this is a country that hasn’t historically been passionate about soccer, it’s somewhat surprising that the sport seems to be pulling up national pride. And it’s not just the U.S. Men’s National Team’s success so far in the FIFA World Cup. As one of three host nations of this year’s tournament, people in the U.S. are rolling out the red carpet for the world’s visitors—who are raving on social media about the wonders of diners, ranch dressing, soda fountain ice dispensers, yellow school buses and the warm welcome from American people, writes Forbes senior contributor Dani Di Placido.In The NewsThe CMO’s job has changed dramatically as technology reshapes consumers’ relationships with brands and the world around them. Last week, Forbes highlighted 50 CMOs who are moving companies, categories, consumer decisions and cultures on the World’s Most Influential CMOs list.At the top for the third year straight is Netflix CMO Marian Lee, who has redefined entertainment marketing and helped transform Netflix from a streaming service to a powerful entertainment and technology company. The list also features a number of CMOs previously featured in this newsletter, including Chime CMO Vineet Mehra, Infosys Global CMO Sumit Virmani, Adobe CMO and EVP of Global Marketing Lara Balazs, Workday CMO Emma Chalwin, HubSpot CMO Kipp Bodnar, former DoorDash CMO Kofi Amoo-Gottfried, Zoom CMO Kimberly Storin, and Lowe’s CMO Jennifer Wilson. Nine people joined the Forbes CMO Hall of Fame this year, which honors those who have been on the list five times. They include Disney CMO Asad Ayaz, Qualcomm CMO Don McGuire and AWS CMO Julia White.On MessageBuilding Marketing Stamina: Lay’s Long-Haul World Cup PlaybookHernán Tantardini, CMO of PepsiCo’s U.S. Lay’s & Food Portfolio.PepsiCoAt the midpoint of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, soccer fever is everywhere: On television and streaming feeds, in the news, on social media and at the grocery store. I talked to Hernán Tantardini, CMO of PepsiCo’s U.S. Lay’s & Food Portfolio, about how Lay’s has been capturing the American fan—a plan put together even before the U.S. Men’s National Team hit the pitch and energized the nation. This conversation has been edited for length, clarity and continuity.How do you present the message of coming together, enjoying the game and being a part of the excitement, especially to U.S. consumers who might not already be the biggest soccer fans?Tantardini: We focus on a consumer insight that is pretty close to Americans: the bandwagon fan. [They are] fans that change based on how a team is progressing—I just enjoy the game. With Lay’s, we are inviting everyone to jump into the Lay’s bandwagon. Enjoy the game. Get together. Get a bag of chips, get with your friends and family. Support—obviously—the U.S.A. team, but you can support other teams if you want. Get together and enjoy. It’s different than the Super Bowl: This is a full 40 days of events. It’s 40 days of big soccer games. How are you keeping people engaged with the brands over the course of the entire tournament?We need to trust the teams to keep giving us a lot of positive news. We are all extremely happy with the first games of U.S.A.’s team. We have huge in-store activations—2X the average stores we activate for a Super Bowl, close to 600,000. It’s a lot. They’re customized because there are regional nuances, different moments. Before the World Cup started, we [did] some consumer promotions to win sweepstakes and the possibility of getting World Cup tickets, even the final. Then the second phase, the one that we are [in] right now. We want consumers to enjoy our product in a different way, so we’re inviting them to get some limited flavors from ‘Lay’s Around the World.’ At the stores, you can buy different World Cup flavor editions. If you go to the stadiums, it’s a different experience. I was at the Argentina against Austria game. You can buy a flavor inspired [by] a sandwich that is sold at every single stadium in Argentina called choripán. It’s called Lay’s Table. You decide if you want your chips flat [or] wavy, then you choose the flavor that you want from around the world.Once the teams start to [qualify for the knock-out round], we’re going to have a big social activation. We have a social war room—we want our brands to be super close and we’re working with personalization. We have a lot of people coming to America, and we want to talk to all of them. On the U.S.A. team, we [had] the No. 1 footprint in terms of share voice. While we are communicating to Americans to be part of the party, we have a second campaign called ‘No Lay’s, No Game.’ We are using it for Hispanics in the U.S. with soccer celebrities. We have Messi, David Beckham, Thierry Henry, also. We call it the epic party. It’s a WhatsApp group with big soccer celebrities interacting. Everyone around the world can get in. So far, there were more than 5 million consumers in the group.What advice would you give a CMO who is trying to hook their messaging into a large event like the World Cup?Planning. This is the second time we are the World Cup sponsors at Frito-Lay, but we have a lot of experience in other events. I connected with other sponsors that had a much longer experience in the World Cup. We were extremely close to the owner of the event: There’s no one that has more experience than FIFA. We want us to be successful, we want them to be successful. We decided to build a specific team beyond our core sports team: Their only job was organizing the World Cup activations. We decided to pull from the fantastic talent we have, people who really love sports and understand the culture of soccer.Keep on connecting during the tournament with other sponsors, just to learn what they are doing. We have been partnering, we are collaborating.Comings + GoingsTravel provider Norwegian Cruise Line appointed Lee Applbaum as its new chief marketing officer, effective July 6. Applbaum joins the company after working in the same role at Wheels Up, as well as Bacardi and Patrón Spirits International. Specialty packaging manufacturer Novolex hired Dan Debicella as chief commercial transformation and strategy officer, effective June 22. Debicella most recently worked as president of the graphics solutions division at SGS & Co. He will succeed Chuck “Whitt” Whittington, who is retiring.Data resilience and security provider Veeam tapped Mika Yamamoto as chief marketing and customer AI officer. Yamamoto joins the company from Freshworks, where she most recently worked as chief integrated customer growth officer.Strategies + AdviceDespite what’s been going on with politics and corporate policies, representation matters deeply in marketing. Olivia Rodrigo’s all-female Daisy Chain Fields music festival—highlighting the women artists that are excluded from big festivals, and pledging all proceeds to organizations advancing women and girls—sold out in less than an hour. Here are some lessons you can bring back to your brands.Your employees have a wealth of knowledge and skills that you may not be taking advantage of, which hurts both your organization and your relationship with your workers. Here are four ways to recognize what your employees can do for your organization and put those talents to work.QuizIf reports are correct, Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce will get married and celebrate their union at Madison Square Garden this week. The world’s biggest pop star has more than doubled her net worth since she met the Kansas City Chiefs’ tight end in 2023. What is Swift worth today?A. $1 billionB. $1.9 billionC. $2.1 billionD. $2.4 billionSee if you got it right here.