• by Karl Greenberg , July 2, 2008

Gillette has added another athlete/celeb to its Gillette Champions marketing platform. The company has signed New York Yankees star Derek Jeter to a stable of athlete-endorsers that includes Tiger Woods, Roger Federer and footballer Thierry Henry, who appear in ads, promotions, at gilletteChampions.com, and in PR efforts to tout the brand.

A spokesperson for the brand says the athletes will used to promote the premium men's grooming products line with products such as Fusion, Fusion Power, and M3 Power. Jeter, who has never pitched Gillette before, will appear in Gillette print and broadcast ads, promotions, point-of-purchase materials, interactive Web programs, and PR efforts.

Woods, Federer and Henry have appeared together in ads to push Gillette's "The Best a Man Can Get" brand proposition. Likewise, in a new spot for the Gillette Fusion razor in which Jeter makes his debut, he, Federer and Woods use their respective skills to get a guy to switch from the Gillette Mach3 razor to the new five-blade Fusion razor.

In the ad, the guy is hounded by the athletes. First, as he prepares to start the morning rituals, a golf ball comes sailing through his bathroom window, knocking his Mach3 razor from his hand. Woods is out on the lawn, smiling.

Later, when the guy is shopping for razors at a supermarket, as he reaches for a razor at the Mach3 display a baseball thwacked by Jeter rams the display, knocking the razors asunder. Finally, in a gym locker, Federer appears with a racket and knocks a razor out of the guy's hand with a tennis ball. Then he uses his racket to serve him a new Fusion razor.

The ad ends with the three athletes chatting. "You see, five's better than three," says Federer. "Not in golf," says Woods. "Yeah, but in real sports," says Jeter.

Back in February, to tout its Fusion Phenom razor, the company had WWE wrestler John Cena in ads. This summer, he is making appearances to promote a range of Gillette products at mobile marketing events throughout the United States.

Currently, Gillette's brand ambassadors range from the "Gillette Young Guns," a group of young Nascar drivers, to Cena and the Gillette Champions.