It’s rare to see airlines having this much fun on social media nowadays (well, aside from Ryanair roasting its customers), so huge credit to British Airways and Norwegian Air Shuttle for their World Cup rivalry, and for following through on their promises…
In this post:
British Airways & Norwegian make fun World Cup bet
Yesterday, England played against Norway in the World Cup quarterfinals, and as you’d expect, fans on both sides were excited. Airlines tend to get active on social media with supporting “their” team, for obvious reasons, and that was true here as well.
British Airways was of course supporting England, while Norwegian Air Shuttle was supporting Norway. The two airline brands had a healthy dose of trash talking on social media, which ultimately resulted in a fun bet. The airline associated with the losing team would have to change its logo on social media to that of the airline associated with the winning team, for a period of 24 hours.
They really went all-out with this, including a Norwegian employee flying to London so that they could shake hands on the bet, and exchange USB thumb drives containing the logo of the other airline. The two companies had a joint post on social media.
Separately, Norwegian posted a behind the scenes video of the employee flying to British Airways’ headquarters for that exchange to happen.
Meanwhile British Airways posted a video delivering a note on a flight to Oslo, which read “IT’S COMING HOME!”
British Airways wins, Norwegian follows through on promise
England ended up beating Norway yesterday, and Norwegian has indeed followed through on its promise. If you go to the carrier’s Instagram page, you’ll see that it has the British Airways logo, and that’s expected to stay up for 24 hours.
Seriously, in a world full of lawyers and erring on the side of caution, how cool to see two companies have this much fun. And as you can see, this is great marketing, based on the amount of attention it’s getting.
Norwegian is also directly trying to (smartly) profit off of this, offering discounted tickets to anyone who wants to travel to a Norwegian destination. As the airline wrote on social media, “since we lost yesterday’s bet we’re offering a flash sale on all Norwenglish destinations.” Hah.
Bottom line
British Airways and Norwegian Air Shuttle had some fun on social media, given the World Cup match that took place yesterday between England and Norway. The two airlines agreed that the losing team would have to change its logo on social media to that of the winning team for a period of 24 hours. England won, and Norwegian followed through on its promise. Well played by both parties!
What do you make of this British Airways and Norwegian rivalry?
Remember how the Norwegian men’s national soccer team brought its own food to the 2026 World Cup because it doesn’t trust the quality of food in the US? (Sorry, I'm being told that's 'fake' news, and the 'alternative' facts are that they would all die if they don't eat Norwegian salmon, aka, they did this 'to maintain consistency in players’ diets and provide a taste of home.')
The beardy guy with the tea cup looks suspiciously beardy . The Norwegian player with the top-knot also looks suspicious . Beards and top-knots do not make champions .