This is called bad timing. On March 1, Powerade relaunched its sports branch with Ja Morant, the first athlete signed by the brand in more than five years. The operation was accompanied by the largest advertising campaign in the history of the energy drink. With the explosive and spectacular leader of the Grizzlies, Powerade thought he had found the perfect ambassador to revive himself.
The advertising clips are thus released everywhere, with the slogan “From underestimated to undeniable” or “From underestimated to unmissable”. Problem: two days later, Ja Morant was filming himself with a gun in a strip club, on a live Instagram, and must now wait for the results of the NBA investigation.
Obviously, Powerade and its parent company Coca-Cola are very annoyed, especially since the takeover of BodyArmor in November 2021 creates duplicates that the Atlanta firm is currently struggling to manage.
In any case, the advertising campaign with Ja Morant was logically very discreet, before now completely disappearing. Powerade’s social networks and its YouTube channel no longer display it at all. The brand has not communicated on the subject and, for the moment, we can imagine that it is only a break.
Nevertheless, the partnership will logically be in danger if ever the NBA decides to heavily sanction Ja Morant. And what about the one with Nike, since the equipment manufacturer had also made the Memphis leader one of its new figureheads? For now, Phil Knight’s firm is also playing the watch.
