Ad For Cristiano Ronaldo's Electronics Company Brings In 'World's Biggest Trainer'

Cristiano Ronaldo may be one of the most famous footballers in the world, but he is "apparently not immune to an off-season slump that involves lying on the couch and eating junk food," according to T.L. Stanley of ADWEEK. An ad for headphone maker ROC, Ronaldo's consumer electronics company, "whips him back into fighting shape" via "The World's Biggest Trainer," which is the name of the parody video and its rotund eponymous star. The “trainer,” played by YouTube actor-comedian Christian Busath of “Fruit Ninja” fame, cannot touch his toes or do a crunch, but he is referred to as “a golden god” charged with bringing Ronaldo back from the "slothful brink." The digital short, which launched Friday with paid media on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, comes from L.A.-based Shareability, which co-owns ROC and handles the two-year-old brand’s marketing. The spot has attracted some 10 million Facebook views on Ronaldo’s page, 14 million on Instagram and 750,000 on YouTube. ROC, which launched in '15 with a Shareability spot that became "one of the year’s most shared videos," refined its positioning to be a sports-and-training brand. Consumer research showed "many people think working out is boring, but music can be a solid motivator," Shareability CEO Tim Staples said. This could have led to a long-form ad of Ronaldo working out and “looking like a Greek adonis” while showcasing the audio products. Staples said, "We decided to do the exact opposite. The storyline is Ronaldo's gotten lazy, so we called in the big guns." Ronaldo, for his part, does not do comedy "as a general rule, but he made an exception here." The video, shot at the footballer’s home in Madrid, "shows him and his new fitness guru side by side for some warmups before hitting the pool." Staples said that Ronaldo, who has some 250 million social media followers, wanted to give his fans "something they hadn't seen from him before" (ADWEEK, 11/6).