Tavares becomes the pineapple of New Yorkers’ eyes in a rare endorsement deal
The director had a question for John Tavares: “How do you feel about pineapples?”
The director had an instruction for John Tavares: “Be super-evocative!”
The director had a request for John Tavares: “Do you know any good Canadian jokes?”
Tavares responded to all of it with an assortment of quizzical looks while good-naturedly going with the flow on Wednesday at Northwell Health Ice Center in East Meadow, N.Y.
It was an Islanders off day, part of which their captain spent doing a photo and video shoot for his new endorsement deal with Vita Coco coconut water, doing his best to conform outside his comfort zone.
By his own admission, Tavares is not a natural at this sort of thing, but he mostly held his own, even throwing in some ad-libbed lines and a wellexecuted wink.
“There’s a talent in acting and doing these things,” he said during a break. “I think I’ve gotten a little better, but I’m not even close.”
The most unusual thing about the shoot was that it happened at all.
Tavares, 26, is one of the best hockey players in the world, and plays his home games in the biggest media market in North America. But he likes to pick his endorsement spots carefully.
His current roster includes CCM, the Canadian hockey equipment company; Mission Athletecare cooling towels and now Vita Coco. That’s about it, by design.
“I put a lot into playing the game and when I get time away from the rink I’m trying to take advantage of that,” he said. “I am not a guy who really tries to do a whole lot. You partner up with the right people, the right brands that make sense for me . . . It’s important to me when we do things that it doesn’t take away from me playing on the ice.”
Tavares is the only current hockey endorser for Vita Coco and only the second in its history. Why him?
“We like to talk about athletes that we think are working really hard and embody the outgoing, fun ethos that our brand is,” said Hailey Tully, a communications manager for the Manhattan-based company. “We like to work with athletes that maybe don’t take themselves too seriously, the same way we as a brand don’t take ourselves too seriously.”
Actually, Tavares does have a reputation as an athlete who takes himself seriously — on the ice and when speaking for the team in the dressing room. Goofing around on set allowed him to show another side of himself.
“(Acting) is not my specialty, that’s for sure, but it’s fun,” he said.
So he sipped pineapple-flavored Vita Coco through a crazy straw and told a pineapple joke about himself — “prickly on the outside but sweet on the inside.” He smiled. Then the director asked him to say it again.