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COVER STORY
Punches to Purchases In this corner, Manny Pacquiao’s endorsed brands get boxed. FOOD Datu Puti Soy Sauce Datu Puti Vinegar Knorr Chicken Cubes Magnolia Ice Cream Magnolia Milk McDonald’s Pacquiao’s Produce
BEVERAGES Ginebra San Miguel Gin Magnolia Milk Red Horse Beer Revicon-ION San Miguel Beer Thundercare energy drink VitWater
APPAREL Darlington socks Nike No Fear underwear
PHARMACEUTICAL Alaxan FR Circulan
TOILETRIES & SCENTS Head & Shoulders MP8 Scent
AMUSEMENT San Manuel Indian Bingo & Casino
AUTOMOTIVE Toyota of Glendale Phoenix Gasoline
TECH & TELCO HP Touchpad Talk and Text
PUBLIC SERVICE Phil. Drug Enforcement Agency
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MANNY PACQUIAO
diminishes the brand name of one of the most highly-paid athletes in the world. Athletes of lesser statures would have been right to refuse to do that ad.
there a scandal in Manny’s future that could turn the tides on the wave of big-ticket endorsement deals that are finally coming his way? Is there a below-the-belt punch in his arsenal?
In this regard, Pacquiao has been saved by a belle. Lucia McKelvey, a marketing executive who previously worked at IMG Golf brokering endorsement deals for Tiger Woods, was hired by Top Rank in February 2011 as their executive vice-president for Business Development and Marketing. In the short time that she has been with Top Rank she has already closed two major deals for Manny Pacquiao. Pacquiao now has endorsement tie-ins with Hewlett-Packard and for State Street Produce, a company that grows fruits and vegetables in Mexico and sells to U.S. restaurants. The State Street Product will be called Pacquiao’s Produce with his face appearing on bags, boxes and delivery trucks.
It is possible of course, but hopefully unlikely. If you take cues from the statements he made in pre- and post-bout interviews you will have heard him make frequent reference to the biggest fight of his life – ending poverty in the Philippines. He obviously has set his sights on yet again moving up in weight class – this time as a heavyweight in the political arena. Anyone with that kind of political ambition will take all precautions to stay out of scandal’s way.
Inextricably tied to celebrity endorsements are the risks of scandal that could take the brands down along with them. We have seen it happen with Kobe Bryant, Michael Vick, and Tiger Woods to name the highly publicized ones. Their fall from celebrity grace had marketing and PR experts falling over themselves in an attempt at immediate damage control. Celebrity endorsers entangled in controversy put brands in peril and force marketers to make difficult choices. Do they dump the celebrity and avoid further associations with whatever unseemly behavior has come to light? Or do they stand by their man in the hopes that all will be forgotten, forgiven and spun into a tale of overcoming and redemption? Brands like Nike have kept its support with Tiger but other brands like Accenture, Gatorade, AT&T and Gillette ended their endorsement deals with Tiger resulting in a US$22-M drop in his endorsement earnings in 2010. Pacquiao has had a few brushes with controversy. There are continuous rumors of infidelity, reports of large amounts of money being lost to gambling, and baseless accusations of the use of performance-enhancing drugs. The Pacman has come away from these scandals relatively unscathed. It would take something incredibly awful to tarnish the image of Manny Pacquiao in the Philippines. In a largely Roman Catholic population, fans have chosen to shrug off the talk of infidelity and the gambling. But we are not talking about just the Philippines anymore. Is
May-June 2011
Pacquiao ran for congress in 2007 and lost to the incumbent, largely because people were unwilling to see their boxing hero lose his focus. In 2009 he ran again for a different district and won by a landslide. Although no one will deny the earnestness in his statements, it was not difficult to catch the whiff of politicking in the manner in which the statements were delivered and the request to wear yellow, the Aquino administration’s unofficial color, on the day of his fight. Hopefully Manny Pacquiao has learned a lesson from his endorsement negotiations and realizes that the harm to his brand health will most probably not be instigated by his own actions but by the wheeling-and-dealing of those he chooses to keep around him. When asked about the differences between politics and boxing, Pacquiao responded by saying “there is no cheating in boxing – only in politics.” We pray that he keeps that in mind and continues to fight the good fight.