Should Bo Start Saying No to Ads? : Marketing: Analysts say Jackson, the superstar athlete, may be spreading himself too thin. But Pepsico, the company involved in his latest campaign, disagrees.

Is Bo getting boring?

This week, Bo Jackson stars in a new, regional TV commercial for Mountain Dew Sport, a Gatorade-like drink made by Pepsico. In the tongue-in-cheek ad, he outperforms a 650-pound alligator on the football field and running track before finally begging off a swimming contest at the diving blocks.

“Later, alligator,” Bo says, as he concedes the race to the wide-eyed reptile.

But Bo is wrestling now with an issue larger than alligators. Is the superstar beginning to appear in too many commercials and promotions?

Besides Jackson’s long-term relationship with Nike, he recently began to appear in AT&T; commercials. For more than a year, he has been the focus of print ads for a regional sporting goods company. Jackson will soon be featured in a Nintendo video game. There is even talk of a cartoon series that would team Jackson with several other sports superstars who have also become the darlings of advertisers--Michael Jordan and Wayne Gretzky.

Jackson may be just giving the public what it wants: More Bo. Indeed, this latest campaign could soon air nationally if the product--being test-marketed in several cities including San Diego--is a hit. But others say Jackson’s value as a paid spokesman could diminish if he hawks his talents to too many commercial bidders.

Among those most concerned about Jackson’s potential over-exposure: his agent.

“The question about Bo over-exposing himself is legitimate,” said Richard Woods, Jackson’s Mobile, Ala.-based agent. “We are not pursuing any other opportunities right now.”

Not that the opportunities aren’t there. Woods said he receives inquiries daily from advertisers interested in Jackson. Before choosing Pepsico, Woods said they had discussions with Coca-Cola. And several major American car makers have approached Jackson’s agent with proposals.

“We’ve been very selective,” said Woods. “We kept him out of the market for the first couple of years. We knew if he succeeded in dual sports, he would be much more valuable.”

Woods said that value is so high now that Jackson, 27, earns “much more” money annually from his product endorsements than he earns from sports. His salary with the Kansas City Royals is $1 million a year; he earns about $750,000 a year with the Los Angeles Raiders.

Marketing experts generally say that, so far, Jackson has done a good job of associating himself only with top-name companies. “The chances of sustaining that high quality across a number of products are monumental,” said Susan Missner, senior vice president at Kemper Sports Marketing, a Northbrook, Ill.-based firm that matches sponsors with athletes. “But if anyone can do it, he can.” But consumers don’t usually like it when spokesmen are spread too thin. “Consumers are pretty smart,” said Howard Cohen, chairman of the Los Angeles ad agency Cohen/Johnson. “Their suspicion meters turn on when they see someone advertising a whole bunch of things.”

Pepsico says it is tickled to have Jackson. “He has an uncanny ability to keep people entertained,” said spokesman Tod MacKenzie. “People have not tired of him.”