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Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce is pulling in a lot of money outside of football. His investment with Cholula hot sauce made a profit after McCormick bought the company for $800 million in 2020. He has also invested in PlayersTV, Hydrow, and the Alpine Formula 1 racing team, among others.
Kelce is also among the hottest athlete endorsers, as proven by his ties with Nike, Bud Light, State Farm, and Campbell’s Soup. However, it’s his partnership with Pfizer that has the world talking at the moment, especially Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla and four-time NFL Most Valuable Player Aaron Rodgers.
Albert Bourla talks about Pfizer’s relationship with Travis Kelce
CNBC’s Jim Cramer asked Bourla in a recent episode of Mad Money:
“I’m not trying to make light of it but you picked this spokesperson, Travis Kelce, perhaps because of his association with Taylor Swift. Maybe the most famous athlete in the world right now and he also has an antagonist, a fellow by the name of Aaron Rodgers who called him ‘Mr. Pfizer’ in order to mock him.”
“But that fact is, sir, isn’t that the kind of awareness that you need in order to be able to build prescriptions, build vaccines, and people realize the power of your portfolio?”
Bourla replied:
“I think he is a wonderful spokesperson for us and we are very proud that we are associating our name with him.”
Kelce had a paid partnership with Pfizer through an advertisement explaining that the company’s flu vaccine and COVID-19 vaccine can be taken at the same time. The video starts with Travis Kelce sitting at the vaccination center before saying, “Huh, two things at once.”
The rest of the advertisement showed him doing two things simultaneously, including being on a live radio broadcast while riding a hot air balloon. His mother, Donna Kelce, also made an appearance.
Meanwhile, Cramer asked Bourla if getting the Kansas City Chiefs tight end as a spokesperson drives people to get their COVID-19 shot. The CEO’s response wasn’t re-assuring when he said:
“There is a little bit of COVID fatigue, which reflects on the number of COVID vaccinations that we had...We are far away from the COVID fear so everybody won't take the vaccine now."
War of words between Travis Kelce and Aaron Rodgers
Aaron Rodgers is a staunch anti-vaccination supporter backing the presidential campaign of fellow anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Hence, he called Travis Kelce “Mr. Pfizer” after seeing the ad. Rodgers even challenged Kelce to a debate about vaccines.
However, Kelce responded to Rodgers’ verbal jab at him by sharing with reporters:
“I thought it was pretty good. With the (mustache) right now, I look like a guy named Mr. Pfizer. Who knew I’d get into the vax wars with Aaron Rodgers, man? Mr. Pfizer versus the Johnson and Johnson family over there.”
Rodgers is currently under contract with the New York Jets, the NFL team owned by Woody Johnson. He is a descendant of one of the three brothers who founded Johnson & Johnson, the company that produces the Janssen COVID-19 vaccine.
