Powerade's timing could not be any worse. Just days after they announced a multi-million deal with Ja Morant as the new face of the brand, the Memphis Grizzlies ended up getting himself suspended by his team after brandishing a gun in a shocking IG Live stream. At this point, it seems like Powerade is now doing some damage control — and understandably so.
It appears that Powerade has now decided to take down its Ja Morant-centered ads from its website. Apparently, Morant's Powerade video commercial on Instagram can no longer be viewed as well (h/t Morgan Jon Fox on Twitter):
Seems like Powerade is trying to bury its Ja Morant affiliation, removing him from their website & made that really cool ad ‘private.’ pic.twitter.com/pG6UC6I2lW
— Morgan Jon Fox (@morganjonfox) March 7, 2023
In case you haven't seen it yet, here's Morant's one-minute Powerade ad, which is actually pretty awesome. It's still available for viewing on Twitter, but we don't know for how long:
.@POWERADE signed Ja Morant as an athlete partner 🤝
Morant’s father, Tee, does the voice-over for the campaign, which focuses on his son’s journey. pic.twitter.com/OdqJe1RFbQ
— Sports Business Journal (@SBJ) March 1, 2023
To be clear, there has been no official statement from Powerade regarding their current affiliation with Morant. They recently locked him up to a big-money deal that involves a multi-year contract. I'm pretty sure this contract has some sort of stipulation with regard to Ja's behavior on and off the court. This current gun scandal could put his Powerade sponsorship deal in jeopardy, but at the end of the day, this is all speculation.
The Grizzlies recently announced that Morant's suspension has been extended for at least four more games. The All-Star point guard was initially slapped with a two-game suspension, which apparently, wasn't enough. At this point, it remains unclear when the embattled 23-year-old will be able to return to action.
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