Kobe Bryant is what is known in China as a big goddamn deal, with some Chinese companies even giving their employees a day off to watch his final game. And thus it makes sense that he'd utilize that fame, post-retirement, to make some extra dough by filming commercials for the world's most populated country.
Above is one such commercial for which we had neither the translation nor any idea of what was in that freakin' box, but for which Ad Age has kindly offered answers to both.
Turns out it's for a startup food delivery service (similar to GrubHub) called Ele.me, which reportedly translates to "Are you hungry?" In the TV spot, Kobe stars as some sort of table tennis star who forgot to eat before his match.
Additionally, Ad Age reports that hiring Bryant as the new pitchman is intended to help the company reboot its image after they were found to have included deliveries from unlicensed restaurants back in March.
It's unclear how much Mamba made from the ad, but the chairman for the company behind it said "Kobe's worth the money spent, no matter how much." From that we can deduce that he did alright. Plus, due to scheduling conflicts, he didn't even have to leave Los Angeles to film it.
As you can see retirement is continuing to treat him well.
A follow-up ad will reportedly debut in August.
