Internationally
Nutella is also very popular in the rest of Europe, India, Malaysia, Canada, Puerto Rico, Australia, New Zealand, Turkey, Singapore, Brazil, Trinidad and Tobago, Mexico and South Africa, mostly with children and teenagers. This is less true in the United States, where the product was only available as an expensive import until the 2000s. In the United States, basketball star Kobe Bryant was a former spokesman for Nutella, having grown up in Italy. Nutella is briefly mentioned in Chloé Doutre-Roussel's "The Chocolate Connoisseur", which includes an anecdote of her mother flying into Mexico with several jars and smearing it on her face to convince a Customs Officer that it was a facial mask, and not a banned food product. In 1999 Nutella was one of the official sponsors of the 1999/2000 UEFA Champions league season. They were advertised at every game on a bill board.
