Beats does what Levi’s did: Jamal Musiala had to tape over the logo on his headphones at the World Cup. Here’s why his sponsor profits anyway.
Before Germany’s World Cup opener against Curaçao, Jamal Musiala turned up wearing headphones whose logo had vanished beneath a strip of tape. The reason is the same FIFA rule that already stripped Levi’s Stadium of its name: during the tournament, only paying sponsors may be visible on stadiums and players. Beats by Dre, owned by Apple since 2014, is not an official World Cup sponsor — so the logo has to go.
The rule hits almost every venue at this World Cup. MetLife Stadium becomes the “New York New Jersey Stadium”; SoFi Stadium turns into the “Los Angeles Stadium.” Corporations that once paid nine-figure sums for those naming rights disappear entirely for the duration of the tournament. What applies to entire stadiums also applies to a single player’s headphones on the way to the dressing room.
The case gets especially awkward thanks to one detail: Musiala himself is a Beats brand ambassador and regularly features in the company’s campaigns. FIFA makes no exception. The player who advertises the headphones has to obscure them at his biggest moment. Germany, meanwhile, won the match 7–1.
How the taped-over Beats logo becomes advertising after all
Beats now joins a pattern this World Cup has already produced once before. When the Batwing logo at Levi’s Stadium was covered by a tarp for the tournament, Levi’s turned that very covered logo into their Instagram profile picture — turning a regulation into the advertising coup of the summer. In marketing, this is called ambush: benefiting from an event without paying for sponsorship.
Beats is running the exact same play. The brand posted a photo of Musiala wearing the taped-up headphones, captioned “Spoiler alert: it’s a b” — and, just like Levi’s, swapped its own Instagram avatar for the taped-over version. The tape that was supposed to hide the brand becomes its very calling card.
No other headphone detail is being talked about more at this World Cup than the tape on Musiala’s headband. A strip of tape meant to make a brand invisible ends up directing everyone’s gaze straight at it — all without a sponsorship deal. The rule was supposed to keep Beats out of the tournament. In the end, everyone is talking about the brand.
