I fell in love with David Beckham when he was just a young promising footballer at Manchester United – admittedly then it was all about the floppy hair and twinkly eyes. Since then, as he has grown into a global icon, I have witnessed one of the greatest PR stories develop alongside his fame.
Never more so has Brand Beckham been quite so eloquently staged as on Jonathan Ross’ last Friday night show, as Golden Balls himself charmed audiences and satisfied brands alike. His role as an ambassador to the England football team at the World Cup didn’t falter as he fielded one of Wossy’s questions about the team’s performance by praising South Africa for the event. As he steered the answer towards the original question he answered openly, didn’t waffle on and didn’t get drawn into any tricky subject areas.
And it didn’t stop there: from dropping in his Yahoo online football forum to paying tribute to the British troops out in Afghanistan – and even a major plug for Lego who must have fallen off their sofas when he exulted its Taj Mahal set – Becks actually managed to out-talk Ross.
You could say he was well-briefed, you could say it was all staged, but whatever it was, he was on message and his delivery was believable. Is it any wonder brands clamber over themselves to secure him as their own ambassador?