LA28 drops first ad, new slogan for 2028 Olympics

If you thought ESPN dropping its first 2027 Super Bowl ad less than 24 hours after the 2026 NFL season ended was premature, wait until you see what LA28 is up to.

With more than 600 days to go until the next Olympics and Paralympics, the organizing committee behind the upcoming Summer Games announced a new slogan and released the first ad for LA28 today, and according to CMO Alex Merchán, it’s not a second too soon.

“On the heels of a successful World Cup…we respectfully have to raise our hand,” Merchán told Marketing Brew. “We’re next up. We’re the next big, global sporting event, and so we need to start raising our hands now and generating attention.”

The assets are meant to rally athletes, fans, and potential volunteers ahead of the Games, Merchán said, and they will serve as a starting point for a narrative that the LA28 marketing team will be building for the next year and a half.

Look up

The campaign film—a 60-second spot that’s running on LA28’s website and socials, as well as the International Olympic Committee’s and International Paralympic Committee’s platforms—is meant to serve as a sort of “love letter to Los Angeles,” Merchán told us. It features shots of iconic LA landscapes and landmarks like the Hollywood sign and Griffith Observatory and is set to “Can’t Stop” by the LA-born Red Hot Chili Peppers.

“Stars Align,” the title of the ad, is also serving as the official slogan of the 2028 Olympics and Paralympics. In addition to the Olympic motto, “Faster, Higher, Stronger—Together,” and the Paralympic motto, “Change Starts with Sport,” it’s tradition for each Games to have its own slogan; Paris 2024 was “Games Wide Open,” and Tokyo 2020 was “United by Emotion.”

The LA28 organizers wanted something that applied specifically to LA while also being broad enough to resonate with athletes and fans from around the world, Merchán said. “Stars” is an obvious nod to the stars of Hollywood, he said, and since actual stars—or constellations—have long been associated with storytelling, the symbol works on several levels.

“We really feel that it’s going to work in Manhattan, New York, or Manhattan, Kansas, because the meaning and the foundation truly is common, and connects to all these audiences,” Merchán said. “This crosses country borders. This crosses languages. This is something universal.”

Star power

For now, Merchán and his team are largely focused on awareness. While most people know that the Olympics and Paralympics generally happen every two years, organizers still seek to spread the word about exactly where and when the next Games are happening, and with tickets already on sale and sports hype arguably higher than ever in the US, now is as good a time as any.

“We can’t take it for granted,” Merchán said. “We’ve got to make sure people know and are aware, and now we’ve got a platform, a storytelling narrative, that we can build on and make sure people engage and are aware of what’s coming.”

In 2027, Merchán said his team plans to roll out another ticket-oriented campaign, make further calls to action for volunteers, and announce the LA28 mascot. Athletes play a significant role in the storytelling of the new campaign, he said, and they’ll continue to be the stars of LA28 messaging moving forward.

“More than ever before, athletes have their own platform beyond when they compete,” he said. “We’ve tapped into some of that in the past, and we’ll continue doing that in the future.”