After it was reported that an anti-hair-loss shampoo he
promoted allegedly contained carcinogens, social networks and media in China lit up with chatter about the "Jackie Chan curse." There was an auto repair school that became enmeshed in a diploma
scandal. A maker of video compact discs saw its manager jailed for fraud and went under. The Subor Learning Machine for children flopped. Fenhuang cola fizzled. And an air-conditioner brand that he
promoted purportedly had a unit explode.
"He has become the coolest spokesperson in history," says an editorial writer at Nanjing's Oriental Guardian newspaper. "A man who can destroy anything." The 56-year-old Chan is believed to have about two dozen endorsement contracts at present. "When you have someone with so many brands, the probability of things going wrong is markedly higher," points out Saurabh Sharma, a strategic planning director for Ogilvy & Mather Beijing.
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