He may no longer be Megatron on the field, but Calvin Johnson is still living by the nickname given to him by former teammate Roy Williams.
Now he’s using the nickname to his advantage. Johnson—thanks to his Megatron moniker—landed the starring role in a commercial for the newest Transformers movie, “Transformers: The Last Knight.”
“Megaton,” of course, is the name of a villain from the Transformers series.
This isn’t Calvin Johnson’s first foray into advertising. He had a brilliant campaign with Nike, in which Puff Daddy played “Johnson,” so that “Calvin” could focus on football. He also starred in a non-speaking role for an Acura commercial. He even had his own, excellent “This is SportsCenter” spot.
But this commercial is quite a bit different. Johnson is embracing his personality more and it shows through this commercial. Unlike the prior commercials, Johnson is the narrator in his own ad, and he even shows off a little acting chops.
Now that his football days are over, it certainly seems like Johnson is spreading his wings and discovering himself. He went out of his comfort zone when he placed third in “Dancing with the Stars” last year. He’s been publicly vocal about social issues for the first time since becoming a professional athlete. Most recently, he has confronted issues he has had with both the Detroit Lions and the NFL.
While it was hard to hear what Johnson had to say about the Lions in the past few weeks, it’s also nice to see him come out of his shell more. We hope this isn’t the last we’ve seen on Megatron in the spotlight.