Thursday, November 18, 2010

Nike VS. the people

This is awesome. First the back story summarized: Lebron James, currently one of the best basketball players of the NBA has left his team Cleveland for exchange in Miami to get a better opportunity at winning the Playoffs. He was greatly criticized for this move, and it was seen as betrayal, especially from the Cleveland crowd. At the same time Lebron is one of the key athletes of NIKE so they released a great ad about him:


It's quite a statement. Similar to what NIKE did with Tiger Woods. Now it seemed to gain traction in culture as even South Park used this format just a week after the commercial aired. But earlier this month the best response was release – by the people of Cleveland:


It's a direct response to NIKE and turns their message around. Both videos have almost the same view count on Youtube. In my eyes it's a pinnacle of brand interaction in social media. It's not just a funny spoof with subtitles or a different voice over – it's a passionate and well produced answer by the people.

As an advertising creative, imagine having your ad commented on by the target audience and uploaded back to YouTube. But you'd have to say something people would care for in the first place.

1 comment:

David Sweeney said...

Great Post Wal!
Really shows how the internet/social media has put the power right in the publics hands. Brands really have to be much more considerate now and no longer is it enough to just shout their message at people. It now needs to be more like a conversation because as this shows, like you said when people care about something, they want to talk back.