Gatorade saw a great opportunity to steal Chicago Bulls star Michael Jordan from Coke in 1991 and they grabbed it with both hands.
Other than his life-long earnings from Nike with whom he signed a deal in 1984 to become a billionaire in the future, Michael Jordan signed with a bunch of world-famous brands in the 90s or he himself made some of them famous with his superstardom and popular advertisements.
Food and beverages brands like McDonald’s, Coke etc. also saw and pounced on their opportunity to get a piece of the up-and-coming superstar of the best basketball league.
Still, for some reason, Coke refused to give MJ a 10-year contract during the 90s, which resulted in him singing with Gatorade getting an $18 million contract for a decade-long deal that he signed in 1991.
A new brand means new commercials, and to get the best clips, a piece of terrific background music or song was a must in the 90s. And it was going to cost the new brand another million if not for their advertising executive.
Gatorade ad executive thought of a Michael Jordan game, came up with “Be Like Mike” lyrics in a few minutes and saved his company $1 million
We all remember the “Be Like Mike” advertisement which until now is a TikTok hit, but it almost never happened if not for Disney asking $350,000 for a five-week or a sum of $1 million to give the rights of the song, “I Wan’na Be Like You” from the movie Jungle Book for the commercial.
Bernie Pitzel, an advertisement executive with Gatorade at the time, pulled off a miracle that would become the OG song for the first popular sports drink. It took him only a few minutes while sitting in a restaurant to not only save his company a million dollars but also go down in the history of GOAT ads.
30 years later, it still feels like one of the best commercials ever made, and that had a lot to do with the song by Pitzel. Jordan was the first endorser of that budding brand, which is now worth around $19 billion. Whatever that man touched literally turned to gold, or should I say diamond?
