Nonito Donaire - Cobra’s New Face for Lakas ng Pinas

Embodying the Filipino strength from within

(Manila, Philippines) Icons are not built in a day. It’s a process; first comes hard work, persistence, and picking yourself up. Then you start to influence minds, and involve people in your accomplishments. When you start to inspire and gain respect in return, you know you have reached that mark.



Cobra Energy Drink had long been looking for an icon whose life tells the story of Filipino strength and perseverance. After much deliberation, a name was mentioned, and the decision was made. Filipino Flash Nonito Donaire was launched as the new face of Cobra, capturing the essence of the brand’s latest mantra, Lakas ng Pinas. Donaire is today’s icon of Filipino strength.



It is easy to have heads turn when you win a world championship, more so, when an underdog dethrones, by TKO, an undisputed WBA, WBC, and IBF Super Flyweight champion. It is even easier when you are a man who had not faced defeat inside the ring in a decade. But then the world stopped because this man is from Gen San. This man is a Filipino. And so begins the legend of Donaire.



Reckoned to be the new icon of the Filipino strength, Junjun, as he's fondly called, has had his shares of hardship. Bullied as a young boy, with a frail built and regarded as a weakling, the young Junjun grew up in an environment that made him feel he lacked potential. This experience had eventually crawled into his mind, as he grew up doubting himself. As a teenager with boxing dreams, he had come to face one of life’s saddest trade offs, education versus ambition. These are the pains that made him the icon we see today.



“I am grateful that Cobra Energy Drink has allowed me to reach out to more Filipinos, and inspire them with my story. There will always be hardships and adversities in life, but it is how we use them that make a difference in our lives. Like how Cobra inspires us to work hard and do better, I would also like to be a source of that kind of encouragement,” shares Donaire.



This pound-for-pound boxer is also the first boxer in history to undergo random, year-round blood and urine testing by Voluntary Anti-Doping Agency (VADA). Due to rampant usage of performance-enhancing drugs, Donaire agrees to submit to blood and urine testing 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, whether he has a fight lined up or not. In his interview with ESPN last year, he explains that through random testing, he can prove that whatever he has accomplished, he has done through hard work, and that he only wants to show honesty to his supporters and to the sport.



The Junjun we know today is a World Champion in four divisions, with a 12-year, 30-fight winning streak. And now a proud father to healthy baby boy, and a loving husband to wife Rachel, Junjun sees himself as an accomplished man, in and out of the ring, with reason to fight for something every day.



“Our latest campaign, Lakas ng Pinas, is how we see Cobra’s mission to the nation. It is to stand beside every Filipino, to power them up when they need to do better, when they are required to accomplish more,” says Abe Cipriano, AVP of Non-alcoholic brands, Asia Brewery Inc. “And when we needed someone to tell this message, we searched for an icon whose success story is true to lives of the Filipinos, and Donaire is that icon.”



Everyone needs someone to look up to. To make us realize that success is within reach. These are the role of icons in our lives, for they help us dream bigger, and strive better everyday. We need reasons to believe that things will be better when we put hard work and dedication to our call of duty. Junjun lives up to the expectation, and then turns them into reality. This is how reality works, it is through hard times that a person’s character is tested, and choosing to rise above it is how your story will be an inspiration to others.



About Cobra

Cobra is the Philippines’ number one and best-selling energy drink, powering the country to progress. It contains world-standard quality ingredients like B-Vitamins sourced from Qualiblends, the world's leading supplier of pharma-grade vitamins, as well as ginseng, taurine, inositol and other ingredients to help Filipinos achieve more in a single day, everyday. It has three variants to serve different energy needs, namely: Cobra Original for instant energy, Cobra Fit with ActivBurn technology plus L-Carnitine to burn calories, and Cobra Smart with gingko biloba for instant brainergy. For more information on Cobra visit www.facebook.com/cobraphilippines.