One Foot Tsunami: Redacted Brands

Redacted Brands ∞

Levi’s is handling it well.

Wednesday, June 17th, 2026

New England is a co-host of the World Cup this summer, but due to branding rules, matches aren’t being played at Gillette Stadium. Instead, that building has been temporarily renamed “Boston Stadium”, despite being more then 20 miles from downtown. It actually lies about equidistant to Providence, Rhode Island, but sure, sure “Boston” Stadium.

Even more ridiculous is “San Francisco Bay Area Stadium”, which is a whopping 40 miles from San Francisco. That venue is more commonly known as Levi’s Stadium, but their batwing logo has been covered up in rather hilarious fashion. It’s fine, FIFA, nobody’s gonna know.1

I have to applaud the way Levi’s has leaned into it, changing their Instagram avatar thusly:

I’m very much in favor of less advertising in the world, but that’s not what this is about. Instead, the mandatory debranding is a rather foolish attempt to ensure that only FIFA-sanctioned advertising is seen. Over at The Athletic, Melanie Anzidei has a look at all the ways host stadiums are complying with FIFA’s mandate. The result seen in this picture strikes me as particularly absurd:

At a glance, I can visually identify French’s mustard, Hellman’s mayonnaise, Heinz ketchup and relish, and Huy Fong sriracha, Kikkoman soy sauce, Tabasco, and I think Tapatío hot sauce. I’m not thrilled to have so much brain space devoted to brand imagery, but I also don’t think the black tape is doing much.

Footnotes:

The post in question is archived here. ↩︎

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By Paul Kafasis

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