After a Japanese survey revealed that his endorsement would sway eighty percent of local consumers, David Beckham began to appear in ads for a variety of Japanese products, including Castrol motor oil and Meiji chocolate. The latter company later honored him with a 15-foot scale-model statue, made, of course, entirely of chocolate. Beckham's response at the unveiling ceremony? He laughed out loud.
[Such is Beckham’s popularity in Asia that people still pay thousands of dollars to stay in the room that he called home during the 2002 World Cup jointly hosted by Japan and Korea. After breaking his right wrist in June 2003, Beckham was amused to learn of a new fashion sweeping Japanese nightclubs: plaster casts, worn on the arm in his honor.]
Sources
Jay Julian Payne, Celebrity Anecdotes
