Seth Stevenson at Slate calls Nike’s The LeBrons campaign “baffling”, but will cede that LeBron James is a decent actor. This is a pretty serious analysis of what’s simply a fun series of ads, though. Look at this.
Perhaps Nike’s demographers concluded that kids these days reject all but the most oblique marketing approaches. Still, why drop us into loose, unformed vignettes in which the dialogue is mumbled, the product is hidden, and the premise is completely surreal? Why are there four different LeBrons? Why are they living together as a family unit, cooking each other meals? Why do they inhabit some sort of split-level establishment with rough-hewn rock walls?
Except for the cooking each other meals part, these ads make perfect sense to us. Surely a group of four LeBron Jameses (Jamesii?) could afford a personal chef. Also, they are REALLY FUN. Do you know what that is? And just what else could a Nike ad starring LeBron James be selling other than shoes and apparel, Seth? Do a little reading and understand that Gen Y doesn’t want to be sold to in too direct a manner. Don’t you get paid to know stuff like this?
Finally, the concept obviously revolves around LeBron’s man-size game and attitude that’s somehow been embedded into the body of a kid. Do you know what embedded means? Do you know what a kid is? Do you know what concept and obviously and finally and revolves and game mean? What about that’s, been, and somehow?
This was all a long-winded attempt to suggest Mr. Stevenson is a tool, even though he did write something called Pants Pants Revolution once.
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