Erling Haaland’s World Cup exit didn’t stop brands from trendjacking his look
From FIFA to food brands, Haaland’s recognisable hair became a fast meme template. What it reveals about sports fandom and social marketing.
When a player’s tournament ends, the internet rarely waits for the credits. The conversation just shifts. In Erling Haaland’s case, it shifted into something even more shareable: the instantly recognisable silhouette, the long blond hair, and the kind of “you know it when you see it” visual cue that social teams can remix in minutes.
Erling Haaland stayed in the spotlight after Norway’s quarter-final exit, including a headline collaboration with Chinese herbal tea brand WALOVI where he surprised fans by speaking Mandarin and introduced the heritage drink to a global audience. The moment underscores a simple truth about modern sports culture: the athlete is not only the performance, but also the meme-able identity that brands can safely play with.
Table of contents
Jump to each section:
- Why Haaland’s hair became a brand-friendly meme
- What brands copied (and why it worked)
- A quick read on the campaign behaviours behind the jokes
- What marketers should know about athlete-led trendjacking
Why Haaland’s hair became a brand-friendly meme
Sports fandom has always had shorthand. Jerseys, celebrations, chants, signature moves. On social media, that shorthand compresses even further into a single frame people can recognise while scrolling fast.
Haaland’s look is unusually easy to translate into that shorthand. Brands do not need his face, his club badge, or official match footage to trigger recognition. A ponytail silhouette, a close-up of blond hair, or a Viking-rowing reference can do the job, which lowers the creative and legal complexity while keeping the cultural signal strong.
That is also why the post-match moment mattered. A tournament exit is emotional and communal for fans, which creates a shared “now what?” energy online. Brands that can tap that energy without sounding like they are selling in a sad moment tend to get a warmer reception.
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What brands copied (and why it worked)
Several brands leaned into the same core mechanic: “we only need the hair for you to get the joke.”
- FIFA played with lookalike culture via a TikTok guessing game comparing Haaland’s blond close-ups with pop star Sabrina Carpenter’s hair, turning recognisable aesthetics into participation bait.
@fifaworldcup The hair game nobody saw coming: Sabrina Carpenter or Haaland? 👀 #FIFAFanFestival #FIFAWorldCup
♬ original sound - FIFA World Cup - FIFA World Cup
- Collectible toy brand Fugglers reimagined one of its characters as Haaland from behind on a pitch, relying on silhouette recognition and fandom-friendly humour.
- HelloFresh ran a recurring gag by styling spring onions to resemble Haaland’s hair, including a post that recreated the Viking rowing celebration. It is low-stakes, repeatable, and built for comment sections.
- Mamee Monster gave its mascot Haaland’s hairstyle and set a like goal to “keep the look,” a simple way to turn a visual joke into a mini community challenge.
- Norwegian Air digitally added Haaland’s hair to an aircraft with “We’ve never looked more Norwegian,” combining national identity with a single visual cue.
- Nutella teamed up with other Ferrero-owned brands (including Keebler, Kinder, Tic Tac and Halo Top) to add the hairstyle across products while promoting a US$1 million giveaway, using a consistent meme template to unify multiple brand voices.
- Sushi King Malaysia animated a salmon with Haaland’s blond hair reaching for a football, tying the gag to its Norwegian salmon positioning with a “Nor-way” pun.
- Uncle Roger used a post-match comfort framing, showing Haaland looking at ayam gepuk (“smash chicken”) and pivoting the disappointment into food humour.
- Wendy’s swapped in its own brand asset (red hair and blue bow) while keeping the Haaland hair-reference structure, making it a “real recognise real” visual nod.
A quick read on the campaign behaviours behind the jokes
What looks like a pile-on of playful edits is also a snapshot of how social marketing works during major sports moments:
First, brands are treating athletes as creators, not only endorsers. Haaland speaking Mandarin for WALOVI is a creator-style surprise: it is a performance for the audience, not a corporate message.
Second, participation is the product. The FIFA guessing challenge is designed less as a statement and more as a prompt that invites comments, duets, stitches, and “I knew it” replies.
Third, safe recognisability beats deep storytelling in real-time moments. Most of these posts use minimal context because they assume the audience is already in the conversation. The brand’s job is simply to prove it is paying attention in the same way fans are.
Finally, meme formats help brands avoid overclaiming. None of these brands need to pretend they are part of the team. They just need to land the reference.
What marketers should know about athlete-led trendjacking
Haaland’s meme-ability is a reminder that cultural relevance often comes from small, repeatable signals, not big-budget creative.
- Build around what fans recognise in half a second
A hairstyle, a celebration, a silhouette. If the recognisable cue is strong enough, the content can be simple and still feel “in on the moment.” - Use templates that can scale without looking copy-pasted
The “Haaland hair on anything” format worked because each brand brought its own twist: a mascot, an aircraft, a vegetable, a salmon, a giveaway. Same structure, different payoff. - Let the internet lead the tone, not the brand book
These posts succeed when they match how fans are already joking. The safest version is usually playful, not preachy, and it avoids treating the moment like an ad. - Treat athlete moments as creator moments when possible
Haaland speaking Mandarin for WALOVI signals a style of endorsement that feels like content first. For brands, that means planning for “surprise and share” value, not only logo visibility. - Know when the joke is the message
Not every post needs a product claim. In fast cultural cycles, the brand value can come from being present in the feed in a way that feels native to the conversation.
The bigger signal is that fandom attention is increasingly modular. Audiences are not only following teams and results. They are following the reusable icons, references, and aesthetics that travel across platforms.
For marketers, that shifts the playbook from “own the moment” to “earn a seat in the meme.” The brands that do it well are not louder. They are quicker to recognise what the community already agrees is the shorthand, then creative enough to remix it without forcing it.
