Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, August 19, 1993 TAG: 9308190100
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
But last week's news that Jordan's father had been murdered sent ad executives scrambling to get the athlete's commercials off the air.
The James Jordan tragedy prompted Hygrade Food Products, for example, to withdraw a Ball Park Franks commercial with Michael Jordan from several local markets.
"We did it out of respect for his family. We didn't want them to turn on TV and see Michael in a joyful situation at a time like this," said Margaret Riley, a spokeswoman for Southfield, Mich.-based Hygrade.
Other advertisers made the same move, but now they face the potentially stickier decision of when to resume running Jordan ads.
The Chicago Bulls star is clearly viewed as a compelling advocate. His roster of ads includes blue-chip names - McDonald's Corp., Sara Lee Corp., Quaker Oats Co., Nike Inc. and General Mills Inc.
The Sports Marketing Letter, a Connecticut-based newsletter for the sports industry, has estimated Jordan will collect $28 million from corporate endorsements this year and said he topped its list of "most-wanted spokespersons" for the third straight year.
Sending Jordan to the bench with those credentials is never easy, but pulling his ads may have hurt some more than others.
Jordan is the main draw in ads for Sara Lee's Hygrade franks and Quaker's Gatorade sports drink, and summer is a big season for those products.
Gatorade built an entire campaign around Jordan, including the "Be Like Mike" jingle. About half the ads Gatorade runs feature Jordan, and the company spends about 80 percent of its ad budget from April to October, spokeswoman Patti Sinopoli said from Chicago.
"We suspended them as soon as we learned of his father's death," she said.
Jordan makes a cameo appearance in ads that have been pulled for Sara Lee's Hanes underwear and General Mills' Wheaties Honey Gold cereal.
He was seen briefly in a national Hanes ad, along with other athletes and actors. Hanes spokeswoman Nancy Young in Winston-Salem, N.C., said ads without Jordan featuring Hanes clothes for children and women were substituted.
Jordan has been appearing in Hanes ads since 1989, including a memorable spot with his father that was last shown in December 1992, she said.
The basketball star also was one of several people making brief appearances in an ad for Wheaties Honey Gold cereal and was to appear alone in a new ad for the brand starting next week, said Kathryn Newton of the Minneapolis-based cereal maker.
She said Wheaties has moved to stop the current ad and has postponed the debut of the new ad until September.
McDonald's wasn't running any national ads featuring Jordan but advised its 9,000 fast-food restaurants to discontinue any that might be running locally, spokeswoman Ann Connolly said from Oak Brook, Ill.
Nike traditionally puts its basketball shoe ads on the shelf in the NBA's off-season. But its latest ad with Jordan got on the air anyway this past weekend on a network telecast of an outdoor basketball tournament.
Ironically, the ad shows Jordan practicing foul shots while musing about what his life would be like without the spotlight.
The ad ran because of an oversight, spokeswoman Liz Dolan said from Beaverton, Ore. "We just missed the fact that it was supposed to run," she said.
Most companies said they had not decided when they would resume using ads with Jordan. But Gatorade hopes to resume them this weekend, Sinopoli said.
She said the facts that James Jordan's funeral service has been held and two arrests have been made in his death have given "some sense of resolution" to the case and convinced Gatorade marketers it would be appropriate to reintroduce some ads with Jordan.
"I'm not sure when the `Be Like Mike' ads will be back. He's our only spokesman and I believe he knows we will make the best decision in both of our interests," she said.
by CNB