United turns Boston’s Tartan Army into travel ads

United’s reactive – As Scottish fans—known as the “Tartan Army”—flooded Boston for World Cup matches, United used the moment to place a billboard near Boston Stadium that invites locals to visit the new friends they just met. The campaign, tailored in real time around cultural ex

When thousands of Scottish fans poured into Boston for World Cup games, the city felt the pressure almost immediately—transit delays, disputes over stadium security funding, and a rush that strained local routines. But within the noise and logistics, something unexpected took hold.

Boston “quickly forgot itself,” shedding “skeptical reserve” and embracing the joy of the event “in full measure,” as Peter Schworm wrote for The Boston Globe, “cast under the Scottish spell.” That mood is now being turned into a very specific kind of travel advertising.

A United Airlines billboard, produced by the creative agency 72andSunny, recently appeared near Boston Stadium in the airline’s signature blue-and-white. The message is short and pointed: “Go visit your new Scottish friends; With flights to Edinburgh and Glasgow.”

It’s a simple billboard. But it’s built around a cultural link that was already happening on the streets.

The Tartan Army arrived with team Scotland’s games against Morocco and Haiti—both held at Boston Stadium. Their presence sparked bagpipe marches through downtown streets. local bars running out of beer on tap. and. in a more oddball display of celebration. a trend in which Scottish visitors placed traffic cones on statues. fountains. and monuments across the city.

Schworm described it as a kind of defiant warmth: “Their love of country. of sport as connection. of flat-out fun. all done without a trace of pretension. was stirring. ” he wrote. “At a time of divisive. angry politics fueled by a deep distrust of immigrants. the city’s joy as people from dozens of countries joined in celebration stood in clear defiance.”.

United’s billboard tries to bottle that feeling in a way that doesn’t ask people to pretend something happened that didn’t. The timing is also built for relevance: the Scottish fans have now moved on to follow their team to Miami. leaving some Bostonians with a brief mourning period—exactly the emotional window the ad appears to be targeting.

Maggie Schmerin. chief advertising officer at the airline. said the billboard is part of a broader approach United had already set in motion before the games began. The airline bought digital billboards near World Cup venues ahead of the matches. then tailored the creative to the emerging cultural moment.

“The opportunity in culture is not just to be fast,” Schmerin said. “It is to be relevant, useful, and emotionally worth people’s time. Our goal at United is to know which moments we have earned the right to enter. And as an airline with flights to two destinations in Scotland. we checked that box as having something relevant to say.”.

The campaign works as reactive marketing because it enters a conversation that was already underway—rather than competing with it. It takes an organic insight from the World Cup atmosphere in Boston and turns it into a brand message that points people somewhere concrete while the topic is still vivid in the public mind.

But the World Cup is also a stage where reactive marketing can go wrong fast.

Early this month. Levi’s was forced to cover its logo at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara as part of a temporary. World Cup-based “debranding” effort. The brand silhouetted its emblem with a tight white sheet. leaving the logo’s shape visible—demonstrating just how recognizable it is. The moment drew media attention and became a win for Levi’s. and quickly. other brands jumped into imitation by producing their own white-sheet-covered logos for social media.

The problem, according to a social media analysis Substack called Silence, Brand!, is that the tactic “only works if your logo shape is immediately recognizable without additional context”—which wasn’t true for brands like, the article notes, Chiquita Banana.

That kind of slap-and-dash reactive marketing has become common enough that it can feel automatic: the strategy shows up after big viral culture moments well before the current games—after Taylor Swift’s engagement. in the wake of this year’s KitKat heist. and in the lead-up to the release of Drake’s new album. The criticism is the same each time: brands chasing attention can end up blending into a “sea of sameness. ” even as they try to stand out.

The difference between a campaign like United’s and the imitators is less about speed than fit. When a brand rides on the coattails of another viral moment—or forces itself into a conversation it hasn’t earned—its participation tends to look less clever and more desperate. When it does it right, it doesn’t try to join every trend. Instead, it waits for the one moment where it can add something unexpected and genuinely relevant.

For United. the window opened in Boston. right when Scottish fans turned a sporting trip into a citywide burst of connection. With the Tartan Army now heading to Miami. the billboard’s message reads like a postscript—an invitation for locals who just met the “new Scottish friends” to keep the story going. this time through flights to Edinburgh and Glasgow.

United Airlines 72andSunny reactive marketing World Cup Boston Stadium Tartan Army Scotland Edinburgh Glasgow Maggie Schmerin Levi’s Stadium debranding brand logos