"You can't stop Tebowmania," wrote Peter King, the dean of NFL writers, on SportsIllustrated.com this morning. "You can only hope to contain it."

At least that's the way it looks today, after Denver's new starting quarterback led a last-minute comeback for the Broncos, scoring the game-tying points himself following a lackluster three quarters of play in his 2011 starting debut.

Or, as The Wall Street Journal's Jason Gay put it: "His legend only grows now. He's a movement now. He's going to save the universe, or at least, the Denver metro area for the next few days." 

Comparing Tebow to another pop-culture figure who also has haters, Gay even calls him "Football Bieber" and adds: "The guy is irrepressible. Don't try and deny him. He will not be stopped."Continue reading...

Warren Buffett's Secret Millionaires Club, a cartoon series funded by and starring the Oracle of Omaha to teach kids about saving and investing, is moving from the web (where it launched last year) to TV. Beginning Sunday, Oct. 23rd at 1pm ET, the billionaire investor will star in the first of four half-hour specials on The Hub kids' cable TV channel.

The first special, "Be Cool to Your School," Buffett gives financial advice to a group of teens attempting to raise money for their school and a trip to New York City. Making a special appearance in Sunday's special: Jay-Z, the musician-turned-mogul for whom Buffett tells the New York Times he has nothing but admiration.

"It was not a tough sell, believe me," Buffett told the Times. "He’s a real business man, I’m just pretending."

Two-Time Olympic Gold Medalist Shaun White is boosting his personal brand, big time. The champion snowboarder just partnered with D6 Sports to launch his own action sports product line, Shaun White Supply Co., at an event (above) with the Boys and Girls Club of Las Vegas.

Offering action sports hard goods including skateboards, bikes, stunt scooters, protective gear, and ramps and rails, SWSC’s website says its "main focus is to create, produce and deliver authentic products at an affordable price."

What's more, "Every product has been rigorously tested, changed and tested again until Shaun and his team felt the Shaun White Supply Co. standards were met. It was important to White that not only could SWSC’s products be used by him in competition, but that they could also be used by recreational athletes in an effort to give individuals the opportunity to enjoy, experiment and excel in action sports."

The namesake collection follows on White's other high-profile deals.Continue reading...

Aaron Rodgers finally made his debut with a significant national advertiser during NFL Sunday Night Football, a game in which his team, the 5-0 Green Bay Packers, staged a come-from-behind victory over the Atlanta Falcons. But in keeping with the understated persona of the Super Bowl XLV MVP, Rodgers' appearance in his first commercial for State Farm Insurance saw him being humorously deprecating and not even recognized.

Rodgers' on-field performances in 2011 are being compared with some of the best to ever play his position. But so far, Rodgers has been practically an invisible presence in the endorsement game, especially compared with the upper-echelon quarterbacks such as the Indianapolis Colts' Peyton Manning and New Orleans' Saints Drew Brees with whom Rodgers is being compared these days. Rodgers' go-slow endorsement strategy apparently has been by his own design.Continue reading...

Aaron Rodgers is lighting up the National Football League with his passing prowess so far this season, leading all other quarterbacks by far in overall passing ratings, and drawing comparisons from league analyst and former star quarterback Phil Simms to "Tiger Woods at his best."

So why, unlike the self-destructive golfing icon, isn't Rodgers seen endorsing Buick, Nike and any number of other big-name brands besides State Farm Insurance?

After all, Brett Favre still has Wrangler going, but he hasn't been the Packers' quarterback for three years. And at this point, Rodgers' on-field performance this season has left those of New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and even rookie sensation Cam Newton, of the Carolina Panthers, eating his dust. Meanwhile, NFL pitchman non pareil Peyton Manning, the Indianapolis Colts' field general, has been sidelined indefinitely by neck surgery.

Rodgers' handlers have said he wants to expose himself only slowly to the brand-endorsement world. Or maybe it's that Rodgers is just stuck on Edith. Edith Who?Continue reading...

Oakland Raiders running back Darren McFadden may be a rising star, but he has a long way to go to take on the king, by which we mean Michael Jordan.

MJ hasn’t played professional basketball since 2003 and hasn’t won a championship since 1998, yet he has one of the strongest, shiniest brands of any celebrity out there.

Forbes estimates “that Jordan earned $60 million over the past year mainly through his endorsement deals with Nike, Gatorade, Hanes, Upper Deck, 2K Sports and Five Star Fragrances.” Of course, he also has five restaurants and a car dealership of his own in North Carolina. Plus, he’s got a day job as the majority owner of the NBA’s Charlotte Bobcats.

During Jordan’s playing days he was earning $50 million annually at his peak from sponsorships. While many of his sponsors have been with him for some time, Forbes notes that 2K signed him last year to be on the cover of NBA 2K11, which went on to sell five million panels  and become the best-selling NBA video game in history.

Jordan's deal with Nike started when he graduated from college in 1984. The five-year deal, worth $2.5 million, must have felt like big bucks to him then. The Jordan brand now pulls in more than $1 billion annually, “with MJ getting a piece of the action,” the site notes. “The Jordan Brand’s market share of the U.S. basketball shoe market is 71% according to SportsOneSource,” Forbes reports.Continue reading...

In 1968, Andy Warhol made his infamous prediction: "In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes." About.me (above video) is that future. Briefly known as PumpkinHead, About.me was founded by Tony Conrad, Ryan Freitas and Tim Young in December 2009 and acquired by AOL one year later.

About.me lets people aggregate all their online identities (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn) in one place, creating a front-door splash page that handles digitally disjointed selves; a new kind of business card on the web, a new level of self-promotion.

About.me is sponsoring a contest that began August 23 and runs through September 20. Ten winners will see their about.me profile pages up in lights on a billboard in New York’s Times Square, as well as in ads in taxis and in-flight on JetBlue. The top three winners will be flown to New York with a guest to be part of kickoff events sponsored by AOL on October 1, just in time for Advertising Week, which begins October 1st.Continue reading...

Tattoos as personal branding is a growing trend for people living with HIV who want to communicate their status, as seen in the above video of Michael Lee Howard:

It's a branding of who I am, and it's a branding of being comfortable with that, being comfortable with who I am and particularly the ribbon because after five years I've gone through a huge amount of stuff to get to where I'm at now.

Howard is tattooed with a biohazard symbol on his right arm and a radiation symbol on his left. The origin of HIV-related tattoos is unclear, but the biohazard symbol is a clear sign "to let other men know that they're HIV-positive so that they don't have to come out and say it… a "secret identification code," said David Dempsey, clinical director at the Alexian Brothers Bonaventure House in Chicago and The Harbor in Waukegan, Illinois, transitional living facilities for HIV-positive people in drug and alcohol recovery.Continue reading...