Magazine Luiza started renting out its own mascot to other companies

The persona

Lu is a virtual character operated by Magazine Luiza, a Brazilian multichannel retailer, and used since the late 2000s to front the company's own product reviews, unboxing videos and app content. For most of that history Lu appeared only in Magazine Luiza's own channels. That changed on 3 December 2020, when the Brazilian trade outlet Propmark reported that Lu had been hired to appear in a campaign for Adidas, describing it as 'the first time the character is hired as a model for an external brand campaign' outside Magazine Luiza itself.

What the documents establish

Propmark's report quotes Daniela Valsani, marketing director of the Adidas Group in Brazil, saying the partnership let Adidas 'build unique stories with the Brazilian public, in an innovative and interactive way,' as its Adidas Farm capsule line launched inside Magazine Luiza's retail app. Roughly seven months later, Exame reported on 16 July 2021 that Lu, described there as having more than five million Instagram followers, would join Rede Globo's televised competition Super Danca dos Famosos, dancing a new routine each week through the end of the season starting 18 July 2021. Both engagements are paid appearances for organizations other than Magazine Luiza, documented roughly a year apart.

Character versus company

The distinction worth holding onto is that Lu's on-screen presence, whether modeling Adidas apparel or performing a samba on a Globo broadcast, is content produced under contract, not an independent booking Lu 'chose.' Magazine Luiza and its commercial partners negotiate and pay for each appearance; Adidas's own marketing director is quoted describing the deal in business terms, not describing Lu as an autonomous talent. The five-million-follower figure in Exame's report is that outlet's own stated count as of July 2021, not a company-audited number, and should be read as a snapshot rather than a fixed fact.

What to watch

Whether Magazine Luiza documented further external licensing deals on comparable terms after 2021, and whether later deals disclosed payment terms as openly as the Adidas announcement did, are separate questions this note does not settle. That is an editorial gap in the current record, not a claim about what happened next.

• What financial terms, if any, has Magazine Luiza disclosed for licensing Lu to outside brands?
• Did Globo or Magazine Luiza publish viewership or engagement data tied specifically to Lu's dance segments?
• How does Magazine Luiza itself describe the boundary between Lu as a retail tool and Lu as a licensable media property?

Two dated trade reports, one quoting Adidas directly and one describing a television booking, show a company-owned character crossing into paid work for other organizations inside a single year.