Shaquille O’Neal dominated the NBA for nearly two decades, but now he’s dominating television commercials. In fact, he’s made 273 commercials since his retirement from professional basketball and has made a ton of money doing it. People are beginning to ask why he’s in so many commercials, citing the fact that with a net worth in the neighborhood of $400 million, it can’t possibly be that he needs the money. If he were a Hollywood celebrity, we could assume that he craves the attention, but that’s not the case. So what’s going on? It turns out that O’Neal makes commercials because he believes in certain brands and companies. To date, he’s associated with 50 different brands. Some of them have helped him in his career, which is why he’s loyal to them. For example, O’Neal revealed that when he was broke, The General Automobile Insurance gave him affordable car insurance when no one else would. Now he does commercials for the company as a way of thanking them for taking a chance on him. It’s likely we haven’t seen the last of Shaq. Companies are clamoring for him because of one simple thing: brand recognition.
