HOUSTON – A Harold Cryar Intermediate School student received an endorsement of a lifetime for a product few outside of his class knew about prior to Tuesday.
It all started with a tweet sent from Paula Trippel, a reading and writing teacher at the Conroe Independent School District school, to Houston Texans star J.J. Watt.
Trippel told the defensive end that her sixth grade students created products and had to come up with an advertising technique. Trippel told Watt that one of her students chose him as a celebrity endorsement.
@JJWatt my class created products and had to use a advertising technique, one of my students chose celebrity endorsement...and look who he chose!! Thanks for being such a great role model for our future!!! pic.twitter.com/b7xBtMM7vt
— Trippel's Class (@Trippel_Class) May 21, 2019
The middle school teacher said within an hour Watt responded.
What did Watt do?
Watt posted a tweet Tuesday to his 5 million followers with a video he said he hoped would boost the student’s grade. In the clip, Watt is seen eating and enjoying a bag of Energy Chips, which he shared with his enthusiastic teammate, Will Fuller.
Watt had the student’s logo printed and taped to a bag of potato chips, which scored major points with Trippel.
Watt can be heard in the video saying how the product helps him get “hype.” Watt said, “When I feel like I’m lacking a little energy I grab a bag of Energy Chips.”
Haha that’s awesome. Had a couple extra minutes during lunch break today, so I figured maybe this would help boost his grade on the project. I also brought on a second endorser, but we need to work on his script a bit 😂😂 https://t.co/Di7LUZd3a5 pic.twitter.com/StAPmIbcfS
— JJ Watt (@JJWatt) May 21, 2019
What are students and teachers saying?
Orlando Garza, the sixth grader who created Energy Chips, said he watched the video at least 100 times. The 12-year-old initially thought his teacher’s tweet was a silly idea. He said he never imagined it would go viral.
“That little tweet. He could of just read it, but he made a whole video,” Garza said. “I was shocked.”
Trippel said posting the tweet taught her students a valuable lesson.
"It was a good teaching moment because I was able to go, yeah, never give up. Do what your heart says and see what happens from there,” she said.
Orlando wants to play football for the Texans one day, but for now, he’s working on adding entrepreneur to his to-do list.
“I actually want to make that into a chip cause I mean it’s already gone viral just 'cause a little video,” he said. "I mean why not?"