Barcelona's Argentinian forward Lionel Messi celebrates after scoring during the UEFA Champions League match FC Barcelona vs FC Bayern Muenchen at the Camp Nou stadium in Barcelona on May 6, 2015.PIERRE-PHILIPPE MARCOU/AFP / Getty Images
The sport of soccer may be mired in controversy at the moment, but while its officials are investigated, its star athletes still make a splash for advertisers.
An ad for Turkish airlines featuring Argentinian footie maestro Lionel Messi has just been declared the best ad of the decade on YouTube, as a result of an online vote.
The voting was designed by Google Inc. to promote the 10th anniversary of its video sharing service. The ad, which features Mr. Messi and basketball star Kobe Bryant flying around the world in a competition with each other to take the most impressive selfie, won the most votes.
It was also the most-watched of all of the 20 video nominees, clocking in at more than 140 million views.
YouTube, which began as a repository to share amateur videos, has burgeoned into an advertising platform that is incredibly valuable for brands. While people still go there to watch plenty of cat videos, they are also watching messages from companies: four of the 10 most-watched videos on the site last year were ads, according to Google.
To succeed in the digital world, advertisers are now trying to create content that is entertaining enough for people to watch, or read, willingly.
Other ads that voters thought were worth their time included Volkswagen's "The Force," which was seen 8-million times before it even aired during the Super Bowl in 2011. It was voted in second place.
And a Canadian contender came in third: "Like a Girl," a video for Always produced by three offices of the ad agency Leo Burnett, led by chief executive officer and chief creative officer at Leo Burnett Toronto, Judy John.
It's difficult to know just how significant the vote is: Google would not share numbers on how many people visited its voting website or how many votes were tabulated. But a more informal voting process – the videos people choose to watch daily across the site – continues to be closely watched by advertisers.