Why an e-commerce brand hijacked Call Of Duty!?

Hello Creative Souls,

If you told me an e-commerce brand did a Call of Duty activation, I’d assume the usual:
banner ads, a logo slapped on a map, and a discount code nobody uses.

Mercado Livre looked at that playbook… and fed it to a grenade.

They didn’t “appear” in the game.
They became the game.

The Setup: Don’t Buy Attention, Hide Inside It

There’s a CoD mode called Prop Hunt.
No teams, no flags, no hero arcs.

You literally hide as objects.
A chair. A guitar. A toilet.

The whole game is built on one mechanic:

Now imagine you’re Mercado Livre, sitting on millions of SKUs.
Someone in the room goes:
“Wait… our catalog is basically one giant Prop Hunt.”

So they mapped 420+ props across 16 maps
and paired each with a real product deal on Mercado Livre.

• See a fridge in-game? Real fridge on sale.

• See a chair? Also on sale.

• See something stupid in a weird corner? Yep, on sale.

They didn’t just sponsor the game.
They turned the game into a shoppable Easter egg hunt.

That alone is clever.
But then they did the thing every great campaign does:
they broke one rule of reality.

Last Time the Market Was This Expensive, Investors Waited 14 Years to Break Even

In 1999, the S&P 500 peaked. Then it took 14 years to gradually recover by 2013.

Today? Goldman Sachs sounds crazy forecasting 3% returns for 2024 to 2034.

But we’re currently seeing the highest price for the S&P 500 compared to earnings since the dot-com boom.

So, maybe that’s why they’re not alone; Vanguard projects about 5%.

In fact, now just about everything seems priced near all time highs. Equities, gold, crypto, etc.

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It’s post war and contemporary art.

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_{*Investing involves risk. Past performance is not indicative of future returns. Important Reg A disclosures: masterworks.com/cd.}

The Neymar Glitch: When the Celebrity Is the Product

Most brand logic:

Mercado Livre logic:

They brought in Neymar Jr. as a special prop.
Not a hero. Not a cutscene. Not a speech.

He’s literally hiding as an object:
a fridge, a grill, random household stuff trying not to get shot on Twitch.

Your brain expects:

You get instead:

That tiny violation of expectation?
That’s the hook. That’s the meme fuel. That’s the talk value.

And then they wired it to money.

They streamed the stunt live.
The faster players found and killed Neymar, the bigger the discount got for viewers.

So now people are:

• Cheering for Neymar (because football).

• Also hoping he gets obliterated quickly (because 40% OFF LET’S GO).

Brand benefits when their celebrity loses.
That’s not “influencer marketing.” That’s chaos with a strategy.

Simple daily habits that help reduce anxiety, boost focus, and improve emotional balance throughout the day.

Why This Didn’t Feel Like Cringe Brand “Gamification”

Most “we’re doing gaming now” campaigns die because they scream,

Mercado Livre did three smart things instead:

1. They played by the culture’s rules first.
   Prop Hunt is already fun. They didn’t overcomplicate it. They just tied it to their catalog.

2. They embedded commerce into mechanics, not interruptions.
   No mid-roll ads. No pop-ups. The shopping is the game.

3. They made the celebrity vulnerable, not godlike.
   Neymar isn’t a polished spokesperson. He’s hiding, sweating, dying… for your discount.
   That vulnerability reads as honest, which makes the whole thing feel less like a pitch and more like a bit we’re all in on.

This is the same psychology behind great “unexpected testimonials”:

• A taxi driver telling you to take the train.

• A dentist admitting they eat toffee.

When someone behaves against type, you lean in.
You trust the moment more, because it doesn’t look like the script.

The Receipts: Not Just Vibes

This wasn’t just a clever case study with a moody voiceover. It did damage (the good kind):

• 180k+ live viewers on Twitch

• Most-watched live of the year

• 16,000 coupons redeemed in 45 minutes

• $1.3M in sales

• +5.4 pts in perception with young audiences

• Cannes Lions Grand Prix to go on the agency wall

All from:

• a game that already exists

• a superstar hiding as furniture

• and a discount mechanic tied to how fast he gets wrecked

Minimal media spend. Maximum “What did I just watch?”

Steal This for Your Brand (Without Copy-Pasting Neymar)

The real lesson here isn’t “do something in gaming” or “use a footballer.”
It’s this:

If you want to apply this:

• Start where the attention already is.
  A game mode, a ritual, a show, a meme. Don’t build a stage. Hijack one.

• Embed your product into the mechanic, not the margins.
  If people are tapping, swiping, voting, shooting, guessing—
  make your brand sit inside that interaction.

• Use your “Neymar” in a way that feels slightly wrong.
  Not glamorous. Not over-polished.
  Make them lose, struggle, or be the butt of the joke—just a bit.

• Tie the chaos to a real outcome.
  Discounts, donations, unlocks, access.
  The madness should affect something tangible.

The Takeaway

Most brands use celebrities like billboards with abs.
Mercado Livre used one like a loot drop.

They didn’t yell,

They engineered a moment where people said,

And by the time you’ve asked that question,
you’re already in the funnel.

That’s not just good advertising.
That’s culture-jacking done right.

Figment is written by Abbhinav Kastura, a writer/producer who has spent a decade making impactful internet videos and Guru Nicketan, an advertising nerd, B2B Marketer, stand-up comedian, and a film buff.