This may lose a little or a lot if it has to be translated into Tagalog or any other Filipino dialect. But, in the Brooklyn neighborhood where 79 year old promoter Bob Arum grew up, Manny Pacquiao?s recent run of huge media coverage and newly-minted endorsement deals would be described as not being chopped liver.
Chopped liver, chopped balut, call it what you want but Pacman?s promoter was over the moon Monday afternoon after a glowing, front page (of the sports section) New York Times piece by talented, young scribe Greg Bishop (who made Pacman comparisons to the iconic Bruce Lee) and endorsement tie-ins with Hewlett-Packard for the company?s recently released tablet computer and for State Street Produce, a San Antonio-based company that grows fruits and vegetables in Mexico and sells to restaurants across the U.S.
?Manny, in my opinion, is now the most recognizable and one of the most well liked athletes in the world right now,? Arum said.
Name a product and it seems that Pacman is now hyping it, be it sneakers, his MP 8 cologne, his ?Sometimes When We Touch? music CD with Dan Hill?clearly, Pacman is on a marketing roll.
Arum told me he ?predicts? Pacquiao getting $10 million per year with the State Street deal.
And, on both the fruit and veggie endorsement and the H-P deal, many of Congressman Pacquiao?s poverty-stricken constituents in Sarangani Province, will be beneficiaries.
?These are deals which will provide for free computers and for food for the people in Sarangani,? Arum said.
