MONTREAL - Jackie Chan and John Travolta have a lot in common.
Both are actors. Both are 57 years old. And movies for both actors have grossed in the billions - $3 billion for Chan vs $2.5 billion for Welcome Back’s Vinnie Babarino, by one estimate.
They are now also proxies in the battle being waged between Bombardier and Brazil’s Embraer for supremacy in the air.
A few weeks ago in Los Angeles, Bombardier announced that Travolta had been named an ambassador for Bombardier business aircraft – the Learjet, Challenger and Global brands.
Not to be outdone, Embraer Executive Jets on Sunday unveiled Chan as its new brand ambassador.
Not to sound like a hometown booster, but it’s gotta be said – Bombardier comes out ahead on this one.
No disrespect to Mr. Chan, but Travolta is, well, a bigger star, despite the numbers.
More importantly, perhaps, he is a pilot, type certified to fly an impressive array of planes, including his own Boeing 707. He has been a Qantas representative for many years and is one of a handful of Hollywood fanatics of aviation (as is Harrison Ford). His Florida house sits at the end of his own runway, where his planes are parked (see at http://telstarlogistics.typepad.com/telstarlogistics/2008/06/exploring-john.html )
Chan’s links to aviation aren’t clear, other than he travels a lot. And it didn’t help that at the announcement that was supposed to be splashy and glamorous, he didn’t show.
Unlike Travolta who worked the crowd in LA like a politician, Chan sent a poorly recorded video of appreciation, a barely audible series of platitudes.
But is still doesn’t make up for Travolta’s performance in Battlefield Earth.
No comments:
Post a Comment