News from the sponsorship desk, as Sonny Bill Williams dons the denim for Just Jeans, The Warriors re-sign with Canterbury and X Factor NZ announces its commercial partners, minus a couple from last time.
Browsing: Sonny Bill Williams
Sir Bob Jones says Sonny Bill Williams ‘seems to be an idiot adrift on a float of publicity.’ But Kaleb Francis thinks he’s an immensely physically talented individual—and a branding freak.
Just before the RWC began, Sonny Bill Williams’ management kicked up a bit of a stink when the NZRU decreed that he wasn’t allowed to sign a sponsorship deal with a drinks company considered to be a rival to official All Blacks sponsor Coca-Cola. It turned out he should have been thankful for the denial, because the interested suitor, South Pacific Beverages, used actor Ben Barrington to front one of the biggest turkeys of the year for its Pure Energy brand and Coca-Cola then decided to sign up the man mountain themselves (for an undisclosed sum, of course) as an official ambassador to help launch its new fizzy 300ml Powerade Fuel+, which aims to snatch a share of the energy drink market.
Sometimes you see an ad and wonder what those responsible for it were thinking. And we couldn’t help but notice this one starring The Almighty Johnson’s Ben Barrington for Pure Energy, an all-natural ‘healthy’ energy drink. It’s made by South Pacific Beverages, the company that got knocked back by the NZRU (and, by extension All Blacks’ sponsors Coca-Cola) when it tried to get Sonny Bill Williams to endorse the product. But, judging by this ad, he’s probably thankful for the supposed double-standard.