Now that he has retired, Kobe Bryant has branched out into other areas off the court. On top of winning an Academy Award and having his own show on ESPN+, Kobe has been in the business world.
One such venture Bryant has been a part of has been BodyArmor, a sports drink where Bryant has been one of their main investors. Being a new company in a crowded sports drink market, BodyArmor has to find creative ways to get in the market and one way is their upcoming ads.
Written and directed by Bryant, these ads which will premiere starting Wednesday, take direct shots at the top dog of the sports drink world, Gatorade, by comparing them to other outdated concepts. For instance, thanks to ESPN’s Darren Rovell, one ad consists of Kristaps Porzingis trying to send a letter via carrier pigeon to his parents.
FIRST LOOK: New ads from @DrinkBODYARMOR debuting tonight have their endorsers doing “old” things with the tagline “Thanks Gatorade, we’ll take it from here.” Kristaps Porzingis is sending a letter to his parents by carrier pigeon. pic.twitter.com/LmFtdrdb5Z
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) April 18, 2018
Other ads include Skylar Diggins-Smith leading an 80s style aerobics class, James Harden being a renaissance era soldier and Mike Trout trying to work his abs with a pulsating machine from the 70s.
It’s a bit of a risk to call out your competition directly by name but that seems worth it by BodyArmor since they’re trying to make the connection that Gatorade is the drink for older people.
This isn’t the first time Bryant has been a part of a BodyArmor commercial. In fact, he narrated a commercial that launched at this time last year featuring athletes being obsessed with their performance. That seems like it would be in Kobe’s wheelhouse.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=28&v=DGpFBA8Hb5g
While Bryant isn’t in the commercial, he does have a hand in the making of these commercials behind-the-scenes. According to Rovell, Gatorade has taken issue to some things BodyArmor has done in the past that they felt “falsely denigrated Gatorade,” namely calling it “Garbageade” on Twitter and showing athletes dumping Gatorade on the ground.
[ESPN/Photo: CNBC]
