Beck's Appeal

David Beckham seems to has had a stroke of genius (or his management team has anyway...)

After losing the contract to advertise Gillette, Beckham's face is appearing across the UK (and probably the world) advertising Motorola's Razr 2 mobile phone.

The genius of the move is that he is still advertising a 'Razr', but he now appears in the ads sporting a stylish lil' goatee, openly flouting how he doesn't need Gillette razors now.

Not only this but part of the sales of Motorola's new line will be used for AIDS relief in Africa, adding capital to the Beckham brand.

I think Gillette have timed their move away from Beckham slightly wrong. Beckham is due to get his 100th cap for England soon (if Capello picks him for the squad) - what better time to pick up on some undoubtedly large media attention?

As for Gillette, they've enlisted the services of Roger Federer, Thierry Henry and Tiger Woods to advertise their products, billing their new TV advert as the 'Champions Ad':




The problem with the advert is that the captions that accompany the entrance of each champion makes the advert immediately outdated.

"2006 Wimbledon Champion" - Why didn't the advert say that he was 2007 Wimbledon Champion for the 5th consecutive year? The advert would have more of an impact if it fully used his impressive career statistics.

"2003 Footballer of the year" - Why not get Christiano Ronaldo to be the famous footballer? The list of his recent honours is up to date and more impressive than Henry's - why not capitalise on his current fame (especially considering last night's performance by Ronaldo)?

But I guess you can't argue with the choice of Tiger Woods - he just consecutively outperforms the rest in his field and is undoubtedly the most famous golfer around.

At the end of the day, Motorola made the right choice in signing Beckham and Gillette will lose out. If you don't believe me, it is reported that the only gadget currently outselling the iPod is the Motorola Razr.

Beckham and Motorola seem to have come out on top of this one, although Beckham's goatee is a little dodgy...