14 DAY TRIAL // When Emporio Armani announced it was replacing David Beckham as the face and body for the underwear line with Cristiano Ronaldo, not many (female) fans were pleased. After all, Becks had managed to draw unbelievably large crowds to where his billboards were put up and odds were not looking good for Ronaldo to do the same. After a rather hiccupy start, the footballer is back – and, as AceShowbiz magazine puts it, he’s hotter than ever.
Two brand new ads have just been unveiled and they show Ronaldo much more at ease with himself than he was in the shots for the previous campaign. Even more, this is just the beginning, as fans will be treated to more shots and even a short film in the near future – not to mention that certain locations will soon have an oversized billboard with Cristiano in all his EA glory, just like it was the case with Beckham a while back as well.
“Cristiano Ronaldo has been able to keep his soccer and modeling career in balance. The 25-year-old footballer, who is currently busy as the captain of the Portuguese national team in South Africa for FIFA World Cup 2010, has his second campaign for fashion house, Armani, unveiled. Giorgio Armani has revealed the new images of Cristiano’s new ads. In one shot, Cristiano shows off his buff bod while sporting Armani Jeans. And another unveiled-image shows the soccer beefcake stripping down for Armani’s underwear advertising campaign,” AceShowbiz writes.
“Dubbed as the face of the Emporio Armani Underwear and Armani Jeans for fall and winter 2010/2011 advertising campaign, Cristiano has shot the ads in Madrid with acclaimed photographers Mert Alas and Marcus Piggot. The ads will be released around the globe in July and appear on billboards in major cities including New York, Los Angeles and London as well as online. On June 17, Cristiano will make sensation among ladies as they will be treated with an ad image from Armani Jeans featuring the soccer hunk on a billboard on the Via Broletto. Meanwhile, a short film and online commercial which features the footballer is set to be released in September,” the e-zine further says.
As we were also telling you a while back, Ronaldo’s partnership with Armani got off somewhat on the wrong footing as many chose to criticize him for the strained, too studied and overly macho poses he struck. At the same time, unlike Beckham, Ronaldo painted the picture of a too manicured and obsessed with himself man to be able to charm buyers, it was also being said. Safe to say, that seems to be in the past now.