Becksploitation! In their saccharine glory, the cloying images of star with family he used to burnish reputation - and try to bag honour he craved

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Over many years, David Beckham has presented himself to the world using a ruthlessly manipulated image-machine that portrays him as a genuine, home-loving, patriotic dad.

We now know it is a deceitful facade, but it worked exceptionally well for him (and his bank account) for a long time. Indeed, such is the power of PR in this age of celebrity hero-worship that his team have the gall to think it is still possible for Beckham to get a knighthood.

So how was this tainted megabrand created?

Retired English footballer David Beckham and his wife Victoria Beckham strike a pose at a dinner in Scotland in 2014

Brand Beckham has been ferociously promoted as a wholesome business allied with charity-giving, based on a happy marriage and a strong family, with David as a hands-on, 24/7 father

Brand Beckham has been ferociously promoted as a wholesome business allied with charity-giving, based on a happy marriage and a strong family, with David as a hands-on, 24/7 father. 

The rise of social media fortuitously paralleled the development of his career and he has used its power to give his image an almost daily sheen.

Whereas many celebrities keep their children out of the public eye, there’s no such shyness or sense of decorum from the Beckhams. Images on the photo-sharing app Instagram of Brooklyn, Cruz, Romeo and Harper are shared around the globe with little sense of reticence. 

‘The 21 cutest photos of the Beckham family!’ wrote one website. ‘David Beckham feels the love in too-cute-to-handle family photo,’ cooed another.

With clever PR, they became the First Family of fame – with St David, the compassionate daddy at its head. Inevitably, the children themselves have become cash calves.

Eldest son Brooklyn appeared on the cover of Miss Vogue and has more than four million followers on Instagram. The producer of the TV reality series Keeping Up With The Kardashians was reported to have offered him a blank cheque for a similar fly-on-the-wall show. Younger brother Romeo fronted Burberry’s Christmas advertising campaign and reportedly earned £45,000 for a day’s work.

And so, the money kept rolling in.

Pictured is David Beckham with his sons Cruz and Romeo. Last year, it was estimated that Beckham earned £71,000 a day – based on figures that showed his company, Seven Global LLP, made £8.6 million in profit in just seven months. The list of commercial deals makes the mind boggle

Last year, it was estimated that Beckham earned £71,000 a day – based on figures that showed his company, Seven Global LLP, made £8.6 million in profit in just seven months. The list of commercial deals makes the mind boggle.

Beckham recently signed contracts with Chinese property firm Luneng, who are paying him £4million a year to take on an ‘ambassadorial’ role, and with the British fashion brand Kent & Curwen, who are ultimately owned by the billionaire Fung family and have ambitions to be huge in Asia. That brings him in a further £6.4million a year.

Add in a grooming range with skincare range Biotherm Homme, part of L’Oreal, which is intended to lead to his own range of Beckham face creams for men. Wife Victoria, of course, has just launched a range of make-up for rivals Estee Lauder.

In 2012, Beckham launched Haig Club whisky with drinks giant Diageo, even though he is not a drinker. In a typically clever (and, of course, lucrative) piece of synergy, Victoria served Haig Club whisky on the opening-night party for her new store in London.

And since 1996, Beckham has been the face of sporting goods giants Adidas – so-called ‘lifetime’ deal worth a reported £107 million.

Pictured is former Manchester United and Real Madrid midfielder David Beckham with his daughter Harper in 2015

What else? He’s promoted motorbike jacket manufacturers Belstaff; has fragrances with perfume house Coty; a contract with Breitling watches; £4 million a year to work as a Sky TV ambassador; he’s plugged Jaguar cars in China (even though he drives Range Rovers and Rolls- Royces); is under contract to the Chinese Super League, who offered him a £50 million deal to promote their football globally; and has a five-year deal with China Auto Rental Holdings.

One deal that made him a huge sum of money was with the Las Vegas hotel and casino giant Sands to help promote its businesses in Singapore and Macau. Ninety per cent of its revenue comes from gambling in a notoriously sleazy world of money-laundering and plutocrats who enjoy the varied services of bar girls.

The foundations for Brand Beckham were laid in 1996 when the then young footballer’s public relations was taken over – it is assumed at his then girlfriend Victoria’s suggestion – by pop industry veteran Alan Edwards at the Outside Organisation.

For the next seven years, likeable and softly spoken Edwards and his deputy Caroline McAteer did a brilliant job of protecting and polishing the Beckhams’ image

For the next seven years, likeable and softly spoken Edwards and his deputy Caroline McAteer did a brilliant job of protecting and polishing the Beckhams’ image. 

Edwards (who’s also nurtured the reputations of David Bowie and Mick Jagger) emphasised Beckham’s role as a devoted father and a fashion icon rather than just as a footballer. However, there were big challenges.

First, there was the toxic fall-out when Beckham was seen as ruining England’s chances of winning the 1998 World Cup when he was sent off in a game against Argentina for petulantly kicking an opponent.

A favourable profile of the player was hastily organised in the Sunday Times, for which Beckham was photographed with his hair in a bizarre quiff and he talked lovingly about his infant son Brooklyn and about his personal style. 

David Beckham's eldest son Brooklyn posted a picture of his father cuddling his young sister Harper in a touching photograph posted on Instagram

Thankfully for Brand Beckham, that helped do the trick and smoothed over the awkward issue of David’s bad temper and unsuitability as a role model.

By now the PR machine was working at full pelt. After their wedding in 1999 (remember those grotesque purple thrones that were used to try to make them look royal?), saccharine photo-sessions ‘at home with the Beckhams’ deals with OK! magazine were phased out. His team looked for classier periodicals where there was more money to be spent by advertisers and which in the long run would be more lucrative for the couple – for example, Vanity Fair, GQ and Esquire.

Edwards used his contacts to arrange favourable media coverage while his colleagues had the daily task of fending off any story that they considered might damage the Beckhams’ precious reputation.

One particular low point was the News of the World story that Beckham had an affair with his personal assistant Rebecca Loos, while in Madrid. This proved to be a huge challenge to Brand Beckham’s well-paid team of protectors.

Initially, the Beckhams wanted to launch a libel action against the newspaper for its claim that their union was little more than a business arrangement. But the couple backed off, with their legal team playing down their decision as ‘a settlement’ – even though it cost them more than £250,000 in legal fees, which included those of the Sunday red-top tabloid. 

The former England captain was accused of calling the honours committee 'unappreciative c****' for its failure to make him Sir David as well refusing to bankroll the charity 

The newspaper also claimed Victoria had called her husband ‘an Essex yob’ and the only reason they were still together was because of sponsorship deals which depended on them appearing to be a happy family. Its publisher said it was prepared to defend the article – with Miss Loos, the Beckhams’ former nanny Abbie Gibson and others as star witnesses. And its QC Richard Spearman claimed the couple were only together for financial reasons, saying they were ‘cynically and hypocritically trying to convince the public that they continue to enjoy a happy marriage’.

Beckham was England captain when he was awarded the OBE in 2003 for his services to football

The News of the World’s report was just one of many about the couple’s alleged problems. A beautician called Danielle Heath claimed to have had an affair with David, and the couple’s nanny, Miss Gibson, sold her story, revealing the couple’s poisonous rows and saying Victoria had confided that she had considered separating. 

Much PR-massaging had also been needed to cast Beckham as the victim in his rows with Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson who disliked his player’s commercially-driven lifestyle which he feared would interfere with his performances on the pitch.

As Brand Beckham developed into a global business, the couple left Edwards and were taken on by pop music svengali Simon Fuller, who assigned Simon Oliveira to work with Beckham.

Formerly with Lynne Franks PR, sharp-suited Oliveira is of Portuguese descent. He can be charming – but has been accused of holding grudges and for his aggressive manner with those requesting interviews or information.

Fuller put together the deal to take Beckham to California to play for LA Galaxy – a high-risk strategy given the low status of soccer in the US. It was here, though, that the player began to pick up mega-rich commercial deals. 

The LA deal was hyped as the biggest in sport – when, in fact, Beckham was paid only measly £5.2 million a year. It was disingenuously put out that he was on £200 million – a figure arrived at by adding up all possible revenue streams over five years. The magazine Marketing Week described it as a pure case of ‘Becksploitation’: The footballer being there solely to lend his name and sell shirts.

For her part, Victoria was persuaded to appear in a reality TV programme about her arrival in America. Accompanying absurd hoopla suggested David would appear in films with Tom Cruise and Victoria was going to have a TV career in America. Neither happened.

By now, his minders’ control was total. And, inevitably, there were hangers-on. Oliveira was happy to work with Dave Gardner, Becks’ best pal who eventually joined the management team.

Beckham and Gardner had met aged 14 when both were selected for Manchester United’s youth team. Gardner failed to make the grade and tried to be a football agent. He then married Hollyoaks actress Davinia Taylor but they divorced after seven years. Gardner revelled in the showbiz limelight and dallied with singer Rita Ora and model Kelly Brook. He now has two children with actress Liv Tyler.

There have been many experts who – even before this leak of highly damaging emails – believed Brand Beckham had reached its peak and was beginning to decline.

Marketing expert Mark Ritson said: ‘Any successful celebrity endorsement is partly dependent on the degree of perceived fit between the brand and the celebrity and their long-term legitimacy as being trustworthy.’

After being caught in an expletive-littered diatribe which showed him to be shockingly abusive about the honours system and shamelessly greedy, the word ‘trustworthy’ is the last that can now be attached to Brand Beckham.