Figo means ‘cool’ in Italian, but it is also the name of Portugal’s brightest football star. That’s soccer to Americans.
Luis Figo plays for the Spanish dream team Real Madrid, but is also the captain of the Portuguese national team.
Just before the start of the the European Football Cup in Portugal, which kicked off yesterday, an advertisement for Seven Brand appeared on last week’s issue of the soccer newspaper Qiu Bao. The ad features Luis Figo, endorsing Seven Brand (qi pai), a Chinese men’s clothing company.
There seems to be a trend: soccer stars coming to China and being paid a lot of money to endorse local Chinese brands. Last year, Ronaldo’s smiling face was to be found on both TV and printed ads endorsing Golden Throat Lozenges. You can see one of Ronaldo’s ads on Danwei here.
This year, it’s Luis Figo’s turn, to pose for a Chinese brand. The Seven Brand ad pictured above is one of the commercial offspring of Real Madrid’s 2003 China Tour.
Seven Brand’s website is here. The home page features a photograph of Jet Li standing next to a row of traditional Chinese lanterns and a wall of the Forbidden City.