Dive Brief:
- Café Bustelo today, June 1, launched “Game Face,” a campaign that revolves around 1 million limited-edition coffee cans celebrating Latin culture that are paired with temporary face-tattoo kits, according to a press release.
- Beyond the retail element, the campaign spans linear, social, out-of-home and influencer channels. A 30-second spot shows four people with the tattoos drinking the coffee and ends with the tagline, “Your colors / your cup.”
- “Game Face” arrives ahead of this summer’s World Cup and taps into the culture of four countries — Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico — that are tied to the heritage of the tournament and that of the J.M. Smucker brand.
Dive Insight:
Café Bustelo is helping consumers put on their game faces — literally — with a campaign that taps into Latin culture and self-expression ahead of the World Cup. The limited-edition coffee cans feature designs by artists from the four included countries that are inspired by each country’s iconography, including flora and fauna and patterns, symbols and colors, relevant to the various cultures, per the release.
“Café Bustelo is all about celebrating Latin culture and the passions that make it so vibrant and exciting,” said Emily Lucci, brand marketing coffee vice president at J.M Smucker, in the release. “In this spirit, the ‘Game Face’ campaign honors countries that are synonymous with our brand through the inspiration of art and sports.”
Available at retailers nationwide beginning today, the cans’ packaging integrates the tattoo kits directly onto the product lid and provides consumers an easy way to paint their faces ahead of game day. The World Cup runs from June 11 to July 19.
To promote the limited-edition offering, the brand is running an integrated campaign across several channels, including murals that appear as OOH ads. A 30-second hero spot shows off the face tattoos amid an abstract, quick-cut montage of images, including animals, flowers and colorful fabric in the wind. Each country is represented in individual 15-second cutdowns in the same style.
The nearly 100-year-old Café Bustelo brand has long made its Latin roots and popularity in the Latino community a central part of its marketing. The brand launched an animated Bustelo world that explored its Latin American bona fides as part of a brand revamp in 2022 and an iterative campaign in 2024.
The latest effort is one of the first major campaigns under new J.M. Smucker CMO Katie Williams, who joined the company in March after most recently serving as U.S. CMO for consumer health company Haleon.
Café Bustelo has been one of J.M Smucker’s largest growth opportunities alongside Uncrustables, Milk-Bone and Meow Mix brands. The coffee brand has delivered strong results, driven by expanded distribution, increasing marketing investments and resonance with Gen Z and millennials, executives explained on a recent earnings call. The company will release its fourth quarter fiscal 2026 financial results on June 9.
