Erling Haaland Takes Over Chinese Drinks Aisles
Erling Haaland has dominated World Cup penalty areas this summer. Now he is quietly taking over another arena: the drinks aisles of China.
Anyone who has watched the Fifa World Cup 2026 broadcast feeds or scrolled through social media during the tournament will have struggled to miss it. Between the goals and the replays, there is Haaland, the Norway striker, front and centre in slick, fast-cut adverts for Walovi, a Chinese herbal drink that has suddenly become impossible to ignore.
The concept is simple enough: a traditional-style herbal beverage wrapped in the gloss of a modern global campaign, with one of world football’s most recognisable forwards as the face of the brand. The execution has been anything but subtle. Clips of Haaland posing with the bottle, training, celebrating, all cut together with bold graphics and punchy slogans, have gone viral across Chinese platforms and beyond.
This is not a soft launch. Walovi has surged into the public eye on the back of the World Cup, using the game’s biggest stage to push a distinctly local product into a global conversation. For Chinese consumers, it’s a familiar category dressed in new clothes. For international fans, it’s an introduction: a herbal drink rooted in regional tastes, suddenly attached to a superstar they know.
Haaland’s presence gives the campaign a sharp edge. He is not at this World Cup with Norway, but his image is everywhere – a reminder of his status in the sport and his growing commercial pull in Asia. The adverts have been cut and shared, memed and remixed, as fans joke about the secret behind his power and stamina being found in a slim bottle of Chinese herbs.
Behind the humour sits a serious play. Walovi is tapping into the World Cup’s unmatched reach, blending football glamour with wellness culture and national pride in local products. The brand is betting that, long after the final whistle in 2026, viewers will remember not just the goals and the drama, but the drink that kept flashing up between them – with Erling Haaland’s name stamped all over it.
