Last Friday marked the "corporate coming-out party" for
Raptors G Vince Carter, as he filmed a spot for Vector,
Kellogg Canada's new cereal-like meal replacement product,
according to Paul Brent of the FINANCIAL POST. Carter
"hopes to reap a few million dollars' worth of the
endorsement riches going unclaimed since" Michael Jordan's
retirement, and he is also "expected to wrest the crown of
Canadian endorsement superstar from" Wayne Gretzky.
Carter's agent Tank Black: "Vince can do a lot of the same
things in [Canada] that Gretzky has done. [Gretzky] has got
the kind of attitude and personality that Vince has."
Black: "We're in conversations with six or seven very strong
Canadian companies" (FINANCIAL POST, 5/15). Kellogg Canada
President Philip Donne said that Carter "could appear in
other" promotions for the company (OTTAWA CITIZEN, 5/16).
BAD INFLUENCE? In Toronto, Robert MacLeod reports that
the Raptors promoted Carter's bid for Rookie of the Year
Award by producing a "clever video," with 5,000 to 6,000 of
them distributed to award voters and season-ticket holders.
The three-and-a-half-minute video was "made to look like a
Hollywood movie trailer," and its packaging "proclaims" that
it is "based on a true story" and is "A [Raptors VP & GM]
Glen Grunwald film" (Toronto GLOBE & MAIL, 5/18).
