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Davis, Jennifer --- "Fame and its Exploitation: The Legal Protection of Celebrity in the United Kingdom" [2007] ELECD 262; in Bogusz, Barbara; Cygan, Adam; Szyszcak, Erika (eds), "The Regulation of Sport in the European Union" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2007)

Book Title: The Regulation of Sport in the European Union

Editor(s): Bogusz, Barbara; Cygan, Adam; Szyszcak, Erika

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781847203632

Section: Chapter 9

Section Title: Fame and its Exploitation: The Legal Protection of Celebrity in the United Kingdom

Author(s): Davis, Jennifer

Number of pages: 25

Extract:

9. Fame and its exploitation: the legal
protection of celebrity in the United
Kingdom
Jennifer Davis

INTRODUCTION: CELEBRITY `BRANDS' FROM BEST TO
BECKHAM
In 2003, David Beckham moved from Manchester United to Real Madrid. The
move cost the Spanish football club $43 million. It is generally agreed that this
sum was not a simple reflection of the worth of Beckham's footballing skills.
Instead, Real Madrid was buying Beckham, the `global brand'.1 Beckham
personally had marketing agreements with a variety of products, from Adidas
to Vodafone to Marks & Spencer, but Real Madrid were banking on the attrac-
tion of the Beckham brand not only to cement sponsorship deals from Adidas
and Pepsi Cola, but also to gain the club entrée into the Far Eastern market,
`where Beckham is by far the most popular player in the world' and
Manchester United was the best known club.2 Indeed, a year after acquiring
Beckham, Real Madrid became `the biggest earner in world soccer ­ and prob-
ably all sports', a position which had previously been held by Manchester
United.3 As to the values embodied in the Beckham brand, these have been
summed up as `Non-smoking, non-drinking and happily married . . .'4 Exactly
40 years earlier, George Best, also a football player, got his first professional
contract from Manchester United, who that year won the FA cup. Two years
later, when Manchester United beat the Portuguese club, Benfica, in the quar-
ter finals of the European Cup, he became the ...