The leather jacket worn by King of Pop Michael Jackson in a Pepsi Cola commercial 39 years ago was sold at auction for about 400 million won.
According to the BBC on the 12th (local time), Michael Jackson’s jacket was sold for 250,000 pounds (about 404.87 million won) at the ‘Entertainment Memorabilia Auction’ hosted by auction house Propstore Auction on the 10th.
This jacket has a black-on-black design and was worn by Jackson in a Pepsi advertisement released in March 1984. The person who put the jacket up for auction was Wendell Thompson.
Thompson is said to have first met Jackson in December 1980 at a hair salon run by his father and they became friends. Jackson frequently visited the hair salon and became friends with the Thompson family, and they went to amusement parks and had dinner together.
(Right) Michael Jackson’s jacket from a 1984 Pepsi Cola advertisement. Provided by Prop Store AuctionThompson received the jacket as a gift from Jackson in early 1984, before the 1984 advertisement was released. That day too, Jackson visited the hair salon and met Thompson. Jackson, Thompson, and a hair salon employee had dinner together and returned to the salon. Thompson tried Jackson’s jacket on and then tried to return it to Jackson. But Jackson told him to take his jacket. Jackson reportedly explained that he “wore that jacket in a commercial that came out a while later.”
The company also released a Polaroid photo taken of Thompson with Jackson wearing this jacket at the time. According to the photo, Jackson, wearing a red cardigan, and Thompson, wearing a jacket up for auction, are arm in arm.
The company originally expected the jacket to sell for 200,000 to 400,000 pounds (approximately 323.9 million to 647.8 million won), but it was actually sold for 250,000 pounds. As of now, the identity of the jacket’s new owner has not been revealed.
Choi Jae-ho,
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.