Pelé made money with commercials until the end of his life

Pelé felt like he was stepping into the big box when he entered a studio to record a commercial. A perennial poster boy, he has been besieged by brands since his early start in football in the late 1950s.

At the age of 17, he resigned from a ten-year contract with a brand of brandy from Piracicaba, in the interior of São Paulo, after following advice from Zito, the Santos captain. “It was a great fee, but at the last moment I said: ‘Dad, this is not for me’. Drinks advertising doesn’t go down well”, said Pelé.

He would again turn down proposals from world-famous alcoholic beverage brands, such as the US$ 2 million one by Johnnie Walker in 1995, recalls Juca Kfouri, a columnist for Sheetand cigarettes.

At a time when the advertising market did not covet soccer players, Edson Arantes do Nascimento registered his nickname, Pelé, at the National Institute of Industrial Property (Inpi), in 1961.

There was no lack of proposals during his career as an athlete and even after he hung up his boots in 1977, with a salary well below those practiced in current football. According to Celso Grellet, marketing executive and one of the former player’s partners, the Pelé brand began to consolidate itself in the 1970 World Cup, the first broadcast live and in color.

“The first big money that Pelé saw was the contract with Cosmos. It was US$ 5 million”, says Grellet.

Even losing, little by little, the physical size of Athlete of the Century and seeing his image scratched in a long legal battle after refusing to recognize his daughter Sandra, Pelé lined up contracts and was a poster boy for the most varied niches: clothing, food, medicine against sexual impotence, soft drinks, vitamins, real estate agents, batteries, cars, motorcycles, airlines, banks, cell phones, mobile phone plans…

Also as a poster boy, he collected partnerships. He played alongside Xuxa, Argentine Diego Maradona, Frenchman Zinédine Zidane and Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo.

“Pelé was always very expressive, he had a contagious smile and an ability to memorize the text. We were impressed with how accessible and perfectionist he was, wanting to pass on his locutions even though he could leave. He was looking for the best”, says Rafael Pitanguy, from agency Y&R, which produced award-winning campaigns featuring Pelé for Vivo.

Actor Carlos Moreno, known as the Bombril boy, recalls with emotion the day he played with the number 10. On the occasion, Pelé asked to take a picture next to Moreno because his mother, Celeste, admired him.

“I confess that I was very honored and tense next to Pelé, but he acted with an absurd naturalness and simplicity, with a desire to get it right”, he says.

Hired by Bombril since 1978, Moreno says that the studio was packed on the day of filming, with the presence of company directors and guests. Pelé spent the afternoon signing autographs.

“Something I will never forget, and this is in the making of, is that Pelé said that there [no estúdio] he was a partner with me, Pelé and Carlinhos, just as Pelé and Coutinho existed”, says the actor. “There is no Phenomenon, Neymar, nobody who will reach his feet, deserves all nobility.”

In June 2021, two months before being admitted to the Albert Einstein hospital (on August 31 of that year, he was admitted for tests and underwent surgery to remove a tumor in the colon), he performed, alongside Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, a live broadcast to announce the financial transaction option through the WhatsApp application. The service had been available since May, but faced distrust from Brazilians, and the company bet on Pelé.

In the video call Zuckerberg salutes the king of football, who reciprocates with a ‘hi, king of zap zap’. The businessman then explains how the tool works and tries to attest to its safety.

Octogenarian, the Minas Gerais native from Três Corações (MG) did not want to retire from the advertising market and, with the help of his manager, the American Joe Fraga, prospected digital campaigns for the 2022 World Cup.

Technology has been an ally since Pelé started to live with physical problems, in 2012 –in 2016, he told Sheet who had been the victim of a medical error in hip surgery.

Champion in three World Cups on the field, Pelé started looking at the main sporting event on the planet as a chance to sign millionaire contracts from the agreement he made with Mastercard before the 1990 World Cup.

The American company had its eye on the domestic market with the hosting of the 1994 World Cup, in the United States, and hired the Brazilian as its spokesperson in the 20 programs that it implemented in North American territory and around the world.

Although soccer is not the most popular sport in the United States, the 1994 World Cup is hailed as a success. It was the one with the highest average audience in history, 68.9 thousand spectators, compared to 53.6 thousand in the 2014 edition, in Brazil, in second place.

In 2007, Mastercard entered into litigation with FIFA, but did not fail to rely on Pelé’s image. “The first contract would end in 1994, but the success was so great that it was being renewed. Mastercard earned Pelé, on average, US$ 1 million per year”, says Grellet.

There is no reliable survey that weighs Pelé’s performance as the athlete of the century versus the poster boy. In an interview with the newspaper USA Today, on the eve of the 2002 World Cup, Pelé said that he earned approximately US$ 20 million (R$ 72 million at the time) per year. “There’s no doubt I’m making more money from advertising than I ever dreamed of playing football.”