Asda’s Spanish rebrand of George to Jorge taps into ‘the mood of the moment’ as Spain beat Argentina to lift trophy

Asda won praise for capturing "the mood of the moment" after renaming its George brand as Jorge and bringing in Spain flags, “Vamos España” signs and flamenco dancers to cheer on the Spanish football team before their 1-0 victory over Argentina in the New York final.

Posts about the temporary rebrand went viral on social media with people calling it “10/10 marketing”, “pure brilliance” and “an absolute masterclass in real-time PR”.

Spain’s extra-time win, sealed by a late goal by Ferran Torres, was described by BBC Sport as a “victory for football” after a series of controversies around Argentina’s style of play and behaviour at the tournament and some lenient refereeing and VAR decisions in their wins over England, Egypt and Algeria.

Asda tapped into the mood of so many neutrals before the Spain-Argentina final with a series of colourful Jorge posts on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok that racked up more than five million views and 90,000 likes.

Here are just a few of the comments on the Asda Instagram post “Went to bed George woke up Jorge 🇪🇸”:

• “Yes Asda!! Vamooos España! Gracias! 🇪🇸🇪🇸”

• “Most of the world is Viva Espania today!”

• “😂😂 this is how you do marketing ....Viva España!!!!!! 🇪🇸”

• “Excellent marketing”

And on Asda’s TikTok about the rebrand:

• “Do we as a country take anything serious 🤣 this is epic”

• “This is hilarious 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂”

• “We are all Spanish tonight”

• “just for this im shopping at asda today”

• “I have to do my groceries and was thinking to go other supermarket but jorge me has convencido 🇪🇸🇪🇸🇪🇸🇪🇸💪🏼💪🏼💪🏼”

Some other comments across Asda’s posts:

• “Oh my days!!! This is BRILLIANT!!! I swear my allegiance to Spain 🇪🇸 for 48 hours MINIMUM!!! Good Spain!! Bring that goddam trophy back to Europe!!! There's only one country on this planet that isn't walking beside you this weekend!!! Vamos Espania 🥰🥰”

• “Asda you nailed it 👏🏻”

• “10/10 to your PR team”

• “I love it when brands buy into the banter! 🤣”

• “As a Spaniard living in the UK I find this hilarious 😆 go Asda, I will go buy some tortilla and olives for the weekend 🤣🤣”

• “Love this 😂 glad you are my first choice for shopping and will be forever if you keep this up”

Viral content aggregator and meme account The Archbishop of Banterbury posted about the rebrand on Instagram, getting more than 70,000 likes from their 4.5 million followers and comments like:

• “This is giving maximum British humour”

• “Elite level pettiness and I love it”

• “Such good and funny marketing hahahaha”

• “This is genius. I am taking my girls for a trip to Jorge tomorrow”

TikTokers were also quick to react to photos of the Jorge rebrand. This TikTok – “@Asda UK you’ve won this mi amigo 🤣” – got 200,000 views and 28,000 likes.

Andrew Barton who runs the TikTok accounts @foodwithasb (290,000 followers) and @newswithandrew (648,000 followers) got more than half a million views and 40,000 likes on two posts about the Spanish makeover of the George standalone store at Leeds Crown Point ahead of Sunday’s final. He said: “There is Spanish flags absolutely everywhere. I love this from Asda so much … honestly Spain had better win this World Cup.”

And the Jorge rebrand is winning plaudits on LinkedIn too:

• “Not Asda rebranding George (clothing) to ‘Jorge’ ahead of tomorrow’s World Cup final 😂 We love to see brands reflecting the mood of the moment and running with it!” LinkedIn

• “An absolute masterclass in real-time PR … cheeky, highly visual and impossible to ignore” LinkedIn

• “I've really enjoyed seeing some of our biggest brands have a bit of fun ahead of the final – Spanish themed of course! Asda's "Went to bed George, woke up Jorge" is pure brilliance …” LinkedIn

• “Asda this is great 👏 this reactive marketing is 10/10!!” LinkedIn