Here’s a little bit of celebrity trivia for all those of you who may not know it. LeBron James’ lifetime endorsement deal with Nike is reportedly to the tune of more than US$1 billion. Cristiano Ronaldo made more than US$32 million last year from endorsements alone. Brad Pitt was paid US$13 million to star in a commercial for the Macau casino Studio City. Justin Bieber earned US$12 million once for lending his name to O.P.I. Nail Polish (we don’t know if he even needs nail polish, but to each his own). Even Malaysia’s own Ah Niu cashed in tens of thousands for promoting instant coffee! Evidently, money makes the world go round. But does it always?
Sometimes, cash alone doesn’t work. Trust me, because we’ve tried to fork out good money to get big-name global music stars to strap on an Aries Gold timepiece, flash a winning smile and feign some interest in selling it (although realistically, many celebrities are probably as interested in the products they’re paid to promote as seeing an ex while on a date), at the very least. All too often, we get rebuffed because we’re apparently “too Singaporean”, despite our Swiss-registered origins and expertise in manufacturing quality pieces that reflect both contemporary style and functionality.
On a separate note, we’ve sometimes wondered if these same people still mistake Singapore for “that place in China”, in which case, we can’t really blame them, can we? After all, many of us think of China as that place with laughably mistranslated signboards – what if we should somehow misspell George Clooney as George Loony while an Aries Gold watch sits on his wrist? Or worse still, if Maroon 5 became Dark Shade of Red 6?
What all this means is we’ve worked, and will continue to work, doubly hard to prove a point. To show the world that even though cash may not always be king, we’ll create a king of our own (the suave Aries Gold King being one in particular). And while we’re at it, we urge you to visit any H2 Hub retail outlet to check out the goods for yourself and pass the word on if you’re sufficiently impressed. Because ultimately we’ve learned that there’s no better endorsement than yours.
-The Watchman
