Product Endorsements

Until someone dialed 911 on Feb. 8 to report a disturbance in Hancock Park, the pop star Rihanna and her R&B-singer boyfriend, Chris Brown, enjoyed relatively wholesome reputations. Attractive and talented, the couple were known as sexy but not oversexed, fun-loving but not reckless. The two seemed unlikely to be involved in anything more shocking than an all-night dance party. That image opened the door to a host of commercial endorsements.

Are you (liquid) experienced? Jimi Hendrix, who died in 1970, lives on as a rock god -- and an energy drink. His name has been licensed to Beverage Concepts, a new Calabasas company, for a line of nonalcoholic drinks called the Liquid Experience. The title of the beverage line comes from his breakthrough album, "Are You Experienced?" Hendrix, who died from a mixture of sleeping pills and red wine, according to his biographer, is one of the most commercialized rock stars.

Some fans won't credit Peyton Manning of the Indianapolis Colts with having the right stuff until he grabs as many Super Bowl rings as archrival Tom Brady of the New England Patriots. Manning, however, has few doubters on Madison Avenue, where the second-generation NFL quarterback has joined the elite ranks of athletes who are paid handsomely to pitch goods and services.

Possible presidential candidate Fred D. Thompson is lending his voice to radio commercials for a company that says it fights identity thieves and that was co-founded by a man accused of taking money from consumer bank accounts without permission. The one-minute commercials are airing across the country on behalf of Tempe, Ariz.-based LifeLock Inc., which said nearly 200,000 customers pay about $10 a month for services that include placing fraud alerts on their credit files.

The television commercial promoting this year's All-Star game is about as close as Barry Bonds will get to hitting one out of the park for a corporate sponsor. What's unusual about the 60-second spot isn't that rival American and National League cable cars race down the famed San Francisco hills and crash into McCovey Cove. It's the face of Bonds at the start of the ad.

THE images of dead rock stars entered public consciousness quietly at first, turning up two months ago in a British giveaway magazine, as part of an ad campaign for Dr. Martens boots. In heavily retouched photo montages, Nirvana's Kurt Cobain, Ramones frontman Joey Ramone, the Clash's Joe Strummer and snarling Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious are seen perched amid roiling clouds in heaven.

The hotshots competing in the U.S. Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach probably aren't thinking about back-to-school shopping. But 14-year-old Kevin Collier, on the pier with his skateboard this week, had it figured out. When teenagers see famous surfers in clothes made by Volcom or Quiksilver or Billabong, the Valencia High School student said, they know where to spend their allowances. "They like to see their heroes' brands on them."

The "Neuter Vick" T-shirts that appeared on EBay shortly after Michael Vick's legal troubles became public knowledge captured the burgeoning and sometimes ugly backlash against the NFL star. On Monday, the beleaguered Vick agreed to plead guilty to federal charges in connection with an illegal dogfighting ring that was operating on property he owns in rural Virginia. But his public image as the talented Atlanta Falcons quarterback already was badly damaged.

I arrived late to the pediatrics conference and snuck in around the side to grab some food. "Wow! Chinese chicken salad with sesame dressing," I thought to myself. "Just what I need." I was exhausted from my day in the neonatal intensive care unit, and the fresh food could not have looked tastier -- especially in light of the dry cafeteria garden burgers I had been eating for weeks. As we left, I commented to a friend how delicious the lunch had been. "Thanks to the drug company," he said.

After the last three-point basket had fallen and the final moments of an 81-point game had been tucked under history's wing, the question seemed to arrive naturally: Was Kobe Bryant back? Laker fans have hoped for it, TV executives and a major shoe company have banked on it, and after a month-long scoring spree, Bryant's popularity seems to be on the uptick after bottoming out with a felony sexual-assault charge and the admission in December 2003 of an extramarital affair.