From the flagship athlete to the potential nightmare of the sponsors: The case of Novak Djoković is not a premiere in top-class sport, but it sets a precedent in the pandemic.
Check, wait, evaluate, observe: The brands that accompany the world’s best tennis player and, this is new, one of the heroes of the vaccine-skeptical anti-vax movement, Novak Djoković, with sponsorship contracts worth millions, recently completed a freestyle of careful word-of-mouth art. Press offices were taciturn or went to the diving station, sent ready-made statements without any binding statement – and thus left open what to expect from them and their workhorse.
“It is our understanding that Novak has arrived in Serbia and we await his next public statement,” wrote a spokeswoman for the watch brand Hublot. “We are monitoring Novak Djoković’s current situation very closely,” says the end of a broadcast by Raiffeisen Bank International, which, ironically, also advertises him in countries in Eastern Europe that are more skeptical about vaccination.
