Erling Haaland has been the breakout star of the World Cup, and he’s also going viral in China—but for a different reason than in the west.
Even though Norway fell short to England in the quarterfinals this past weekend, the media has proclaimed Haaland to be the biggest new star of this year’s World Cup. On top of his on-field performance, Haaland’s posts have gone viral on Instagram and TikTok.
Meanwhile in China, the Norwegian striker is going viral in part due to his collaboration with a 200 year-old Chinese beverage brand.
Before the tournament began, the herbal tea brand Wang Lao Ji, which dates back to 1828, named Haaland as global ambassador. The brand launched an ad campaign which features Haaland drinking Wang Lao Ji and speaking Mandarin over a catchy jingle. The video has racked up hundreds of millions of views and been one of the most-discussed topics among Chinese fans during this year’s World Cup.
Part of the positive reception from Chinese viewers comes from Haaland reciting the brand’s traditional value proposition, which is based on traditional Chinese medicine. At the end of ad, Haaland (in Mandarin) says that Wang Lao Ji is a cure for “shang huo” (roughly translated as excessive internal heat). Wang Lao Ji is as a source of “cooling”, and often pairs with meals that cause “shang huo”, like spicy hotpot or barbecue.
It’s a fascinating (and funny) example of a legacy Chinese brand leveraging an international spokesperson to drive buzz domestically. Wang Lao Ji is also making a global expansion play under the brand name Walovi. Haaland’s ambassadorship certainly won’t hurt sales, but as of now it’s unclear if those same value propositions can translate for global consumers.
For context for people who didn’t read my earlier post: the World Cup is massive in China, even though the men’s national team hasn’t qualified since 02. Even with many of the games happening overnight in China, this year’s tournament has still captivated Chinese fans. In the first three days of the tournament, there were 2.7 billion views of World Cup and football-related content on Xiaohongshu (or RedNote), which won online broadcasting rights for this year’s tournament. The app has a special page for viewing all matches live, as well as full match replays and highlights, tournament information, commentary from analysts and fans, prediction tools, and other interactive features.
