The three-minute Red Bull ad entitled "Down on the Farm with Cubs rookie Kris Bryant" concludes with Bryant holding a pet goat by a leash, about to board a bus for Chicago.
Were it any cheesier, it would have come with a cholesterol warning.
But, hey, it's a challenge for major-league players to align with major players in corporate America.
For every characteristic that would seem to make Bryant a marketer's dream -- tall, dark, handsome, youthful, possessing a velvety voice and mellow vibe and, oh, yeah, power to all fields in an iconic ballpark and likely to be named National League rookie of the year Monday night -- there's at least one impediment.
Suffice to say, it's easier to become an All-Star pitcher than an All-Star pitchman.
"He has great potential," said Marc Ganis, president of Chicago-based SportsCorp. "But there are a lot of 'ifs.' "
Bryant is just 23, but he understands one of the main challenges.
"Baseball is harder because the stuff they sell is not as marketable as, say, a pair of basketball shoes," Bryant said. "You can actually wear those on the street. You can't wear a pair of metal cleats walking around the mall."
Indeed to reach the level of Derek Jeter, who makes an estimated $15 million-$20 million a year in endorsement earnings despite having hung up the cleats a year ago, baseball players need to represent companies with massive reach well beyond the sport.
The last two to do that were Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire. How did that work out for McDonald's?
"Baseball has a seriously drug-addled past," Ganis said. "The McGwire-Sosa campaign scared sponsors off baseball. Barry Bonds, you didn't want to touch. And Alex Rodriguez. The exception has been Jeter, as clean as can be in the largest media market and a tremendous player on the game's biggest stage.
"He's also very good-looking, and never underestimate the importance of physical appearance. We like to think we're so evolved, but how do you think Michael Jordan got all those opportunities? He happens to be a very good-looking human being with great style on top of that."
OK, but Bryant is dashing and, we assume, clean.
What else stands in his way?
Even though Bryant plays in the nation's third-largest media market, sports-marketing analysts view baseball as a largely regional sport.
Think about Peyton Manning, Aaron Rodgers, LeBron James, Chris Paul and Tiger Woods (still).
And then consider how many people would recognize Mike Trout if he walked down Michigan Avenue. And how many outside California want to be like Clayton Kershaw and Madison Bumgarner?
As if to prove the point, Bryant recently appeared in a two-minute ad for Lyft, an Uber competitor. Wearing shades and a casual gray dress shirt, he chauffeured unwitting passengers around Chicago, talking baseball and joking that it's "terrible" that the Cubs didn't have a Bryant poster attached to Wrigley Field.
"I'm not sure who the third baseman is, but they have, who is it ... Kris Bryant," says one rider, while sitting a foot from Bryant. "He's projected to kind of be a stud."
"No way," says another rider after Bryant introduces himself.
And this was in Chicago.
"Very few baseball players are able to transcend their geography," said Kevin Adler, CEO of Engage Marketing in Chicago. "Plus baseball skews a little older in terms of its fan base. The older demographic is valuable, but everyone wants the 18-34."
NBA stars, Adler said, rate high in terms of cultural relevance -- "fashion trend-setters and music taste-makers."
And NFL studs like Manning, Tom Brady and Russell Wilson have the Super Bowl and its 120 million U.S. TV viewers.
"If the Cubs start winning on a regular basis, it will be a seismic change within baseball," Ganis said. "Kris Bryant has crossover appeal. But he's yet to do it on the biggest stage (the World Series). In the NFL, every Sunday is a big stage."
Bryant uses Boras Marketing for endorsement his deals. His agent, Scott Boras, said he created it because other sports-marketing companies "push athletes to limits they're not interested in ... Papa John's uses Peyton Manning because Peyton spends a lot of time with Papa John's."
The NFL and NBA seasons have far more days off and down time than the Major League Baseball slate.
"The difference is the 162 (games)," said Boras, who played four years of minor-league baseball and said he knows the value of offseason rest and conditioning. "A lot of players are worn out."
Besides, baseball contracts are guaranteed, and careers can span decades.
The Seahawks' Marshawn Lynch would be a fool not to chase every dollar while he's marketable and relevant.
Do you think players such as Jake Arrieta, Anthony Rizzo and Bryant have concerns about their long-term finances?
"Frankly for lot of great players," Boras said, "the economics don't reward the endeavor.
"Most baseball players make 99 percent (of their total income) on the field. It's what they enjoy. And they're numb this time of year, particularly first-year players. Kris Bryant needs time to rest. The amount of endorsement work he'll be doing will be limited. We'll filter through these (proposals) and do very, very few."
And that's fine with Bryant. More than fine, actually.
"I can't even imagine what it's like being LeBron James," he said. "Everywhere he goes, someone will recognize him. That would be tough. It's nice to be a human being off the field, other than a just a baseball player."
