Turn on the football to hear the hits

World Cup music
It's not just football you won't be able to escape in coming weeks ... The Who's Won't Get Fooled Again will be on heavy rotation during the World Cup. Photographs: PA

The product: Nike

The song: Barbatuques - Baiao Destemperado

The mood: Breezy Brazilian charm

The action: Each advert in the seemingly interminable Joga Bonito series has its own song. Were it not for one pesky metatarsal, punk-funk protest rockers Radio 4 would be reaping the benefits of featuring in the Rooney spot. Another features Sergio Mendes and the Black Eyed Peas covering Mas Que Nada, the samba classic used in Nike's classic 1998 ad, Airport. In the Joy spot, Eric Cantona, the ursine Yoda of international football, uncovers a tape of the young Ronaldinho playing in his school gym, which the present-day Ronaldinho reenacts with a big goofy grin. The moral of the tale: "Never grow up." Do footballers need telling not to grow up?

Why they chose the song: "The more we talked with the players featured in our Joga Bonito spots the more we realised how much their current game was shaped by the influences they were surrounded by as kids. For Ronaldinho it was sunshine, the beach game and, of course, music. It seemed appropriate to have music which was as sunny and light-hearted and Brazilian as his game." (Mark Hunter, creative director)

What it says: Everyone loves a Brazilian.

The product: Adidas

The song: Jim Noir - Eanie Meany

The mood: English cheeky-chappy nostalgia

The action: In the first advert, soundtracked by hip-hop producer RJD2, two South American kids pick a dream team of Adidas-affiliated football stars, past and present, including David Beckham, Frank Lampard and Zinedine Zidane, for a backyard match. To the bafflement of all Liverpool fans, the portly kid's first choice is the profoundly useless Djibril Cissé. Porqué? The second part shows the ensuing game, while Jim Noir trills, "If you don't give my football back, I'm going to tell my dad on you." Angry mum stops play.

Why they chose the song: "We wanted the track we chose to be cool, simple and catchy enough to be sung on the terraces. Eanie Meany hit the nail on the head. It has a childlike quality that we thought suits the tone and pace of the ad perfectly." (Lee Hempstock and Chris Lany, creative team)

What it says: Although we are a multinational sportswear giant, we are also your mates.

The product: BBC Sports

The song: The Who - Won't Get Fooled Again

The mood: Apocalyptic stadium rock

The action: Across the globe, commentators' cliches come to life. Thierry Henry bursts into flame, a stadium goes on a War of the Worlds-style rampage and Frank Lampard realises everybody in the world is watching him. Meanwhile in the Home Counties, a retiree drafts a supercilious letter to the BBC questioning whether expensive special effects are the best use of his licence fee. In the background, the Who grumble about how "the party on the left/ Is now the party on the right". Is the BBC slipping anti-New Labour messages into its sports coverage?

Why they chose the song: "There's a story to tell and you need music to drive it along but let the dialogue be heard. Also, the World Cup is such a big event, with so much energy and excitement. Won't Get Fooled Again is an enduring classic - it prickles the hairs on the back of your neck. There's no hidden political agenda at all. I don't think people are going to hear the lyrics." (Simon Riley, creative director)

What it says: We are the BBC and we are classic. But we also rock.

The product: Carling

The song: The 5678s - Woo Hoo

The mood: Maddeningly catchy Japanese surf-rock

The action: In this repeat of Carling's 2004 Big Match spot, a bedroom shirts-and-skins kickabout spills out into the streets. Mob violence is narrowly averted. Quentin Tarantino used Woo Hoo in the first part of Kill Bill.

Why they chose the song: "Woo Hoo very nearly wasn't the Big Match music. We had been developing the ad with another track in mind. However, as soon as we heard Woo Hoo we knew its nutty infectiousness would make it the perfect soundtrack for a city-wide kickabout." (Leith London, advertising agency)

What it says: Thought you'd got this song out of your head after last time? Bad luck, chum.

The product: Sure Sport for Men

The song: The Bees - Chicken Payback

The mood: Retro dance-craze soul

The action: A face-painted fan applies Sure's dependable musk and promptly transforms into a baboon, bounding into streets filled with howling chimps, angry bears, bison, penguins, seals and hyenas, like some 70s disaster movie in which the animals turn on their human masters. The message being that Sure enables you to act like a monkey without reeking like one.

Why they chose the song: "Songs about monkeys and football were probably going to be a little obvious. What we needed was an off-beat little zinger about chickens. By a band called the Bees." (Tom Hudson, copywriter)

What it says: The monkeys are coming. Hide.

The product: Coca-Cola

The song: Pachelbel - Canon in D Major

The mood: Classical triumphalism

The action: In Mark Gustafson's stop-motion animation, a football match reconciles natural enemies. A postman leaps aboard a bulldog, a lumberjack hugs a tree, a chef makes peace with a plucked chicken and a cuckolded husband dances a jig with his wife's lover. World peace ensues (not pictured).

Why they chose the song: "The music had to reflect the triumph of the goal and the uplifting spirit of the togetherness that the characters experience." (Coca-Cola spokesperson)

What it says: We don't need trendy pop music. We're Coca-Cola. Also, Jack White was busy.

The product: Pepsi

The song: Trio - Da Da Da

The mood: Teutonic idiocy

The action: Crazed by their thirst for caffeinated soda, Ronaldinho, Beckham, Henry et al enter a beer tent to face comely Mädchen and lederhosen-wearing Bavarians. A match follows, set to an irritating oompah version of Trio's 1982 synth-pop hit Da Da Da. The players exchange incredulous looks, possibly wondering if they're being paid enough. Henry appears to be searching for the exit. When it's over, they all look relieved. The head of the German tourist board hangs his head in despair.

Why they chose the song: Pepsi would not comment. Why might that be?

What it says: Germans are hilarious!

The product: Gillette M3 Power Nitro

The song: Pete Lawlor - Coming Around Again

The mood: U2esque arena rock

The action: Fans from different countries demonstrate their devotion via regrettable facial topiary as a suitably macho voiceover is delivered in the style of an Andy McNab audiobook. The Gillette M3 Power Nitro is presented as some kind of futuristic killing device with incomprehensible special features: "Microwave pulses are sent to the blades!" A square-jawed Brazilian has a shave, gives his chin an approving rub and goes to the match with his girl-friend, blending in with all the ease of an undercover policeman at a reggae club.

Why they chose the song: "Because our ad aims to capture the raw excitement at the stadium before (and during) a game, we wanted the track to have energy. Lots of it." (Phil Cockrell, art director, and Graham Storey, copywriter)

What it says: Men are great, aren't they? Are you a man? Do you like hugging other men - in a sporting context? Does shaving without cutting yourself fill you with manly self-congratulation? Do you rock? Would you like to do all these things simultaneously? Woo hah!

The product: Mars. No, sorry, I meant to say Believe.

The song: Bill Lever - Believe

The mood: Reality-defying optimism

The action: Following the same logic that Peter Pan applied to fairies, Mars asserts that believing in an English victory will make it so, renaming its bars Believe, having rejected the initial suggestion of Fantasise Wildly. A fan in a St George's cross shirt marches through town backed by a brass band, singing a specially commissioned anthem about England winning the final in Berlin. He finds himself at the heart of a red-and-white throng that bears an unfortunate resemblance to a nationalist coup. North of the border, Scots discard their deep-fried Believe bars in protest.

Why they chose the song: "The choice of music grew from the tone of the overall Believe campaign - positive, uplifting and inclusive. The ads feature the character Bill Lever - an everyman - and we chose the music to really bring this to life and resonate with fans." (Jonathan Rodd, Mars spokesperson)

What it says: Don't mess with Bill Lever.