A new ad by a major cable company trying to stake ground in the U.S. is leveraging a shirtless Cristiano Ronaldo in an attempt to go viral.
Altice USA, which raised $1.9 billion in an initial public offering last month, recently released an ad starring the soccer star in what marks its first major attempt to market to the U.S. consumer.
Leading up to its late-June IPO, Altice bought Cablevision Systems for roughly $18 billion, adding 3.1 million subscribers, mostly in the New York area, to its global customer base.
Cablevision was a long-time company of James Dolan, who currently serves as chairman of Madison Square Garden, owner of the New York Knicks and Rangers.
In the video, which has racked up more than 142,000 YouTube views in the five days since its release, Ronaldo locks himself out of his hotel room wearing only a pair of briefs. A maid secretly snaps a photo of him on her smartphone before letting him back in and then shares it on social media. In a bid to show the speed of the Altice network, the photo has gone viral before Ronaldo even walks back into his room.
Altice seems to be betting that the ad, which has the sticky video title “Cristiano Ronaldo locked out of hotel room in underwear,” might itself go viral, increasing its brand awareness among the U.S. population where it’s trying to expand its reach.
This isn’t the first time Ronaldo has found his way as a brand icon and/or spokesperson for a technology company. The star player on Real Madrid has leveraged his massive social media following to promote several sports and technology brands in the past, including Nike and Nubia, an Android-based smartphone produced by Chinese smartphone company ZTE.
The parent company of Altice USA, The Netherlands-based Altice NV, is trying to expand its presence in the U.S., one of the world’s largest cable and data-consumption markets.
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With its 2016 purchase of Cablevision, Altice became the fourth-largest cable provider in the U.S. behind Comcast, Charter and Cox. The brand, which operates Optimum, Lightpath and Suddenlink, is also now trying to take on Google Fiber and Verizon Fios with a plan to bring a higher-speed fiber optic internet network to 20 states in five years.
Shares of Altice USA have declined by 2% in the past five days, despite the Ronaldo video.