We've seen plenty of product placement photos of athletes downing their favorite sports drink — with the label clearly visible on the bottle, of course.
Now one of today's biggest star athletes in the U.S. is endorsing basic tap water. Although it's water from a plastic Brita filter poured out of a Brita plastic pitcher.
The endorsement by Golden State Warriors point guard — and current NBA MVP Stephen Curry — is a big breakthrough for Brita, a brand of Clorox Co.
“Make no mistake,” said Ed Huber, general manager of the Brita brand in announcing the three-year deal. “Stephen Curry could endorse any beverage he wants.”
Rather than Coke or Pepsi or Gatorade, the deal with Brita, first announced late last year, allows both Curry and the filter maker to focus on the “benefits of water in general,” Brita noted in its announcement.
“Water is my drink,” Curry said in a news release. “I like that Brita makes tap water taste good, so you don't need to spend money or waste plastic with bottled water.”
It's not like there's no business case in pushing filtered tap water. Brita obviously makes money from the initial pitcher purchase, as well as selling replacement filters.
And the deal still has some wiggle room, since Curry also endorses the protein drink Muscle Milk.
But it will still offer Brita more exposure in sports-oriented publications and programming than it has had before.
Besides, it gives a housewares company the ability to not only air ads with Curry surging down the court, embedded below, but also show off a behind-the-back, no-look, nothing-but-net shot from the outtakes. (You have to go to Brita's Facebook page for that one.)
