Dave Hannigan: What kind of characters get Conor McGregor to endorse a product?
Conor McGregor
, some of them backdropped by the Irish Tricolour.
With a Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC) belt slung over his shoulder and a can of this elixir in hand, he is described in the branding as MMA champion, the copywriters having somehow forgotten to include the 'ex' prefix in that sentence. Or to mention that he owns a piece of BKFC but has never fought in it. Yet.
Bucked Up are one of the main sponsors of the BKFC awfulness and, in case there were any doubts McGregor endorses the product wholeheartedly, his autograph was plastered all over. Like it will be on the many presidential decrees he intends to sign upon reaching Áras an Uachtaráin and swiftly rewriting Bunreacht na
hÉireann.
The Notorious Buck flavoured cans come in the green and orange livery of the true commercial patriot, with an image of him poised for combat and a promise to deliver 'superior focus' and 'mind-body connection'. No, seriously.
READ MORE
Amid all the ludicrous claims, no mention that last November the Irishman was
found liable in a civil claim
for raping Nikita Hand by a jury of his peers at the High Court in Dublin. Perhaps the folks at Bucked Up hadn't heard about the judgment or read the extremely disturbing medical evidence presented when they dreamt up this marketing campaign.
Maybe their headquarters in Utah has poor wifi so nobody there knows a woman in Miami filed a similar sexual assault charge stemming from an incident at an NBA game in 2023. Or about the slew of other unseemly incidents where he has ended up, ahem, helping police or gendarmes with their inquiries.
Conor McGregor speaking at the White House on St Patrick's Day this year. Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images
In arguably the most competitive, over-populated corner of the non-alcoholic drinks market, the geniuses at Bucked Up are convinced there are still gullible fools out there willing to purchase something because of McGregor's imprimatur. In 2025. Little wonder they have never cracked the top 15 in terms of nationwide sales. They have put their faith in a poltroon who punched a pensioner in a bar, encouraged his followers to 'evaporate' any Irish property being used to house immigrants and, most recently, was filmed throwing digs at a fella in an Ibiza nightclub.
Near enough a decade since he last mattered as a serious athlete, after years of disturbing accusations across five countries, some ad guru believes that Beacon Hotel snarl, that sullied-forever name, can persuade teens to pay $2 for a can of this gut rot. Imagine there must actually have been a meeting where this strategy was conceived, proposed and approved by adults. How? Why? Who?
Amazed at this tone-deaf crassness, I stalked the rest of the aisles to see what other athletes are being deployed to flog food and drink to American consumers. I found
Coco Gauff
, the number-two ranked tennis player in the world, on the front of a box of Wheaties cereal, the most historic and prestigious commercial placement in sport here. Fresh off her second Grand Slam victory at the French Open, where she handled a temper tantrum by her defeated opponent with uncommon grace, the 21-year-old seems like a decent pitch person, even allowing for her early exit from Wimbledon this week.
Coco Gauff's early elimination from Wimbledon came as a big surprise this week. Photograph:A former teen prodigy who has spoken eloquently about her mental health struggles, she carries herself in victory and defeat with class and dignity. In honour of a grandmother who was the first African-American student to break the colour barrier at her Florida high school in 1961, Gauff uses her own celebrity to help causes fighting social and racial inequity. Also, small detail. She has never been found liable for sexual assault in a civil trial or been interviewed in global cop shops following lurid incidents involving members of the opposite sex.
The same can be said for Arnold Palmer. Nearly a decade since his death, he remains big and beloved enough in these parts to stare down from shelves as the face of Arizona iced tea. Every bottle of the half-tea, half-lemonade flavour comes adorned with shots of him in his pomp, back when his charismatic play earned him the nickname 'The King' and made modern golf into a television staple. More than half a century after his last major victory, the way Palmer's fame has endured is a testament to his character.
Then again, he was never found liable for sexual assault against a woman by a jury of his peers. That might have something to do with his popularity too.
Aaron Judge in action for the New York Yankees. Photograph:Elsewhere in the supermarket, I came upon special edition bottles of Prime (another putrid energy concoction) with Aaron Judge and his number 99 on every tin. Much classier than the contents, the collectible containers are pinstriped blue like the New York Yankees jersey he has worn with distinction this past nine years.
At 6ft 7in, tipping the scales at 127kg, the squeaky clean 33-year-old home-run machine might just be the purest hitter of his generation. A devout Methodist and most definitely not the sort to stumble conveniently upon some bowdlerised version of 'break glass in case of legal emergency' Christianity on his way to court, he remains much sought-after for commercial endorsements.
Just like McGregor used to be. You know. Before he became so bucked up.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RTÉ News
26 minutes ago
- RTÉ News
WRC finds Fair City photographer was not a freelancer
RTÉ has failed to have employment rights claims by the former on-set photographer for Fair City thrown out, after the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) ruled, for the first time, that a supposed freelancer at the national broadcaster was actually an employee. The statutory complaints were brought by photographer, Beta Bajgart, who was previously the subject of commentary at the Public Accounts Committee when it emerged the national broadcaster was paying €60,000 per year for promotional images of the Dublin-based soap opera. Ms Bajgart's case against RTÉ under the Protection of Employees (Fixed-Term Work) Act 2003, the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997, the Terms of Employment (Information) Act 1994 and the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977 will now proceed to a full hearing, following a preliminary ruling today. It is the first WRC case where the principles of a major Supreme Court ruling in 2023 on the distinction between employees and contractors have been applied to the position of a worker at RTÉ. The alleged misclassification of media workers as freelance contractors by RTÉ is a major legacy issue at the national broadcaster. She claims her job as a photographer on the set of RTÉ's flagship soap opera was terminated without notice on 15 December 2023. The broadcaster's lawyers had argued Ms Bajgart was not an employee, but a freelance contractor - giving the employment tribunal "no jurisdiction" her complaints. Adjudication officer Catherine Byrne noted that Ms Bajgart suffered "negative commentary" in September 2023 after attention was drawn to Ms Bajgart's role following a hearing of the Oireachtas Public Accounts committee, which had been scrutinising RTÉ's finances. In the wake of the publicity, Ms Bajgart's solicitors wrote to RTÉ asserting that she had acquired a contract of indefinite duration and was an employee, the tribunal noted. The broadcaster's director of human resources replied that RTÉ's relationship with the photographer was "not an employment relationship" but that she was "a supplier of services". Ms Bajgart was first engaged for the work as an independent contractor for a year starting in June 2011 at €750 a week. There were repeated renewals of the contract and Ms Bajgart won tender competitions in 2017 and 2019, with the rate for the job rising to €980 a week over that period, the tribunal noted. However, Ms Bajgart did not apply when the work was put out to tender again in September 2023, and ultimately ceased working on the Fair City set on 15 December 2023, when the tender process was readvertised, the adjudicator noted. Ms Bajgart gave evidence that she was interviewed for the job in 2011 and "got the contract", with "no discussion about the legal implications". She explained that she set the rate for the job based on her previous work for another production, Off the Rails. Addressing a gap in her contracts between 14 October 2018 and 21 January 2019, Ms Bajgart said she "simply continued to work" and got paid. Her barrister, Michael O'Doherty BL, who appeared instructed by Conor McCrave of Setanta Solicitors, asked if she had "consented to doing the job as an independent contractor. Ms Bajgart replied: "I wanted the job," and added that it was "never offered" to her as a position of employment. Under cross-examination from RTÉ's solicitor, Louise O'Byrne of Arthur Cox, asked Ms Bajgart whether she had done other work while engaged for Fair City. Ms Bajgart said she ran her freelance business around the Fair City shot list and that it was difficult to look for clients because she never knew when she was due on set. Ms O'Byrne also referred to a letter sent by the complainant to the Irish Times and the Irish Independent in September 2023 following remarks by Fine Gael senator Micheál Carrigy about Ms Bajgart's, in which the complainant had stated: "The photographer on RTÉ's Fair City is an independent contractor." Ms O'Byrne argued this showed the claimant "did not consider herself as an employee" of RTÉ. Mr O'Doherty said she had described herself as an independent contractor "because she did not want to upset her employer and potentially lose her job by publicly describing herself as an employee". Adjudication officer Catherine Byrne wrote that the "day-to-day reality" of Ms Bajgart's working relationship with RTÉ was "not consistent with how she was described in her contract as 'a supplier' and 'not an employee'". Ms Byrne noted that Ms Bajgart had been working 20 hours a week, part-time, for 12 years on "a series of fixed-term contracts" in a role which "contributes to the promotion and success" of Fair City. The worker had had a desk on set, "no discretion" about her level of attendance there, and could only work elsewhere three or four hours a week, and performed the work personally 95% of the time, Ms Byrne said. There were limits to Ms Bajgart's "artistic independence" and her freedom to alter her way of working in a bid to increase her earnings, with a fixed weekly rate being paid, Ms Byrne added. Ms Byrne also noted that during a period between October 2018 and January 2019, when there was no contract in place, Ms Bajgart "continued to turn up for work" and got her normal weekly rate "without any dispute". "This continuity of employment, in the absence of a contract, is indicative of a relationship of interdependence and trust, and not that of a commercial agreement," Ms Byrne wrote. "The authors of the agreements… may have genuinely believed that the working relationship with [Ms Bajgart] was that of an independent contractor, at least in the early years," she wrote. "However, it seems to me that the sustained nature of her job and the sole reliance by the respondent on the complainant to do the work, means that the legal basis of the agreement evolved from a supplier's agreement to that of an employee," she added. Ms Byrne wrote that her investigation of Ms Bajgart's status was clouded by the fact the photographer appeared to have "acquiesced" to being classified as self-employed for years - and even described herself as an independent contractor in open letters to two newspapers in 2023. "This acquiescence has no bearing on my conclusion that her relationship with the respondent was that of an employee," the adjudicator wrote.
Irish Independent
2 hours ago
- Irish Independent
Landmark ruling against RTÉ as WRC tribunal finds Fair City photographer was not a freelancer
RTÉ has failed to have employment rights claims by the former on-set photographer for Fair City thrown out, after the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) ruled, for the first time, that a supposed freelancer at the national broadcaster was actually an employee. The statutory complaints were brought by photographer, Beta Bajgart, who was previously the subject of commentary at the Public Accounts Committee when it emerged the national broadcaster was paying €60,000 per year for promotional images of the Dublin-based soap opera.
Irish Times
4 hours ago
- Irish Times
‘Honest belief' of consent raised in pair's appeals against convictions for rape of vulnerable teenager
Two of three men jailed for the gang rape of a vulnerable teenager who had recently left State care have launched appeals against their convictions, arguing issues of consent were relevant during their trial. At the Court of Appeal on Thursday, counsel for Dion Genockey (26) argued the trial judge should have advised the jury his client may have had reasons for not mentioning to gardaí that he believed the victim had given her consent. On behalf of Daryl Rooney (27), it was argued he was not aware the woman had not given her consent. Genockey, of Clarion Quay Apartments, and Rooney, of Railway Street, Dublin city centre, were convicted of raping the woman at Bull Island, Dollymount, Dublin, on January 5th, 2016. READ MORE The convictions came in 2022 following a second trial at the Central Criminal Court. The jury in the first trial, held in 2020, was unable to reach a verdict. Genockey was sentenced to nine years in prison, while Rooney was sentenced to 10 years. A third accused, Troy Ryan, of Lower Gardiner Street, Dublin city centre, was also convicted and sentenced to 9½ years. The sentencing court heard the men maintain their innocence and do not accept the jury's verdict. Genockey's senior counsel, Thomas O'Malley, said his client had given evidence at the trial that the complainant had consented, but he had not mentioned this in interviews with gardaí. Mr O'Malleysaid Genockey was advised by his father not to mention anything to gardaí, which in this case turned out to be his defence. Counsel submitted that the trial judge ought to have told the jury they must consider the possibility that Genockey may have had reasons for not mentioning to gardaí that he believed the woman had consented. Senior counsel for Rooney, Dominic McGinn, said that, to achieve a rape conviction, the prosecution must prove the act, the absence of consent and that the accused knows there is an absence of consent. In this case, said counsel, the third aspect was lacking. Mr McGinn said the complainant said she was not interested in sexual activity, but when Rooney was alone with her in the car, she did not say anything. Ms Justice Isobel Kennedy said that while he was relying on the defence of 'honest belief' of consent, this belief must be founded in reality. 'Where is the counter evidence? The evidence was all going the one way, as she said she did not consent,' said Ms Justice Kennedy. Mr McGinn said the complainant had changed her mind about getting into the car with the men, which made Rooney 'alive to the fact she was a young woman who could change her mind'. 'By the time he got into the car, he knew two others had had sexual relations with her,' said Mr McGinn. He said that in her evidence, the complainant said she made it clear to the first two men that she was not consenting, but Rooney was not aware of that. On behalf of the State, senior counsel Eilis Brennan said the prosecution had argued that this was a very vulnerable woman addicted to tablets and was targeted by the men. They lured her away in a car, even though she told them she did not want to have sex, and took her to a remote location. Addressing Rooney's claim he did not know the woman did not consent, Ms Brennan said 'honest belief' of consent is subjective, but there must be some reality to it. She said there was ample evidence for the matter to go to a jury. Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy, presiding over the three-judge court, said the court would deliver its judgment at a later date.
