Topline
Before his arrest and high-profile murder trial, O.J. Simpson—who died Wednesday—was the celebrity spokesperson for Hertz rental cars and other huge brands, boosting his income during his NFL career and for over a decade after retiring.
Key Facts
Simpson signed his first endorsement deal with General Motors in 1970, before the Heisman winner and Buffalo Bills running back had ever played in an NFL game, receiving $250,000 ($2 million in 2024 dollars after adjusted for inflation) to appear in Chevrolet commercials, Sports Illustrated reported at the time.
Simpson signed his first deal with Hertz Corporation in 1974 as part of a $12.6 million advertising campaign—he told the New York Times the rental car company paid him “between $100,000 and $250,000” shortly after the deal was inked (about $670,000 to $1.6 million in 2024 adjusted for inflation).
Simpson later signed as the chief spokesperson for TreeSweet orange juice—a tie-in with his nickname “the Juice”—in a five-year contract for over $1 million plus a percentage of sales, according to the New York Times.
The Hertz campaign, which portrayed Simpson as the “Superstar in Rent‐a‐Car,” was wildly successful for the rental car company—Hertz posted net profits 47% higher in 1976 after the ubiquitous ad campaign launched, the New York Times reported that year.
By the time Simpson divorced Nicole Brown Simpson in 1992, he had a net worth of $10 million and was making about $1 million per year, according to divorce filings obtained by the Washington Post—and about $550,000 of that income came from Hertz, with other income from film and television.
Surprising Fact
Simpson told the Los Angeles Times in 1989 he made more money from advertising gigs than from football for most of his NFL career. “I used to call the football season my off-season,” he said.
Key Background
Although athletes had begun endorsing products for sponsorship deals decades earlier, Simpson was one of the first to sign multi-million dollar contracts that would remain a lucrative second source of income. When Simpson was drafted by the Bills in 1968, he demanded what was then the largest NFL salary in history—$680,000 ($6.2 million adjusted for inflation) per year. As the 1970s progressed, he was soon making similar figures just from his deals with Hertz and TreeSweet. In the years following his start in the NFL, Simpson also signed deals with Napa Naturals sports drinks, Schick razors, and Wilson Athletic Gear (the official ball manufacturer for the NFL). His advertisements were everywhere for years, but he once told the Los Angeles Times he tried to be selective, claiming he “could be doing four commercials for four different advertisers tomorrow” but “that would devastate my value as a spokesman.” Simpson was also under a personal service contract with Hertz, and marketing experts estimated he was paid $10,000 for speaking engagements in the years preceding his arrest, the Los Angeles Times reported. Hertz eventually cut ties with Simpson after Brown Simpson’s killing in 1994, with the company claiming it had “no plans to utilize Mr. Simpson in any kind of advertising” after 25 years.
News Peg
Simpson died from cancer on Wednesday, 30 years after he was arrested for the murder of his ex-wife and her friend Ron Goldman. In a media-event trial that was watched by an estimated 150 million people, Simpson was eventually found not guilty—though he was later found liable for the two deaths in civil court and ordered to pay $33.5 million. Simpson long denied his guilt, but his reputation never recovered, including after his book “If I Did It” was published in 2007 and interpreted by many as a partial, if hypothetical, confession. Simpson’s former manager later told the Huffington Post that Simpson only agreed to put his name on the book after receiving a $600,000 payout.
