Lebron James makes “The Decision” to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers and join the Miami Heat(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTeCc8jy7FI). Many basketball fans began to dislike or even hate LeBron because they felt he was taking the easy way out of the situation.
Nike, a multinational corporation that has a history of being accused of unethical corporate actions such as having sweatshops, sponsors LeBron James. Nike released a series of advertisements in the form of commercials called “What Should I Do?” where LeBron asks the audience to give him advice on how to handle the situation differently (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DccOb5sgBG0).
The goal of this commercial was to change the public’s perception of LeBron James and identify with him a little more. Nike hoped that this would increase sales of their LeBron James related products in order to maximize their profits. This is an example of a corporation using the media to try to manipulate the perception of a bad boy athlete.
Nike, a multinational corporation that has a history of being accused of unethical corporate actions such as having sweatshops, sponsors LeBron James. Nike released a series of advertisements in the form of commercials called “What Should I Do?” where LeBron asks the audience to give him advice on how to handle the situation differently (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DccOb5sgBG0).
The goal of this commercial was to change the public’s perception of LeBron James and identify with him a little more. Nike hoped that this would increase sales of their LeBron James related products in order to maximize their profits. This is an example of a corporation using the media to try to manipulate the perception of a bad boy athlete.
That's really interesting! To be honest, I didn't even know about that until I read this and watched the YouTube videos, but it's so interesting what methods Nike uses to persuade the audience that he is making a "genuine" effort to pull them in on the situation. They had to do so much to regain the public's perception of Lebron, and knew that him reaching out like this may do the trick in getting them to possibly buy his endorsed products again!
ReplyDeleteSecond blog recently that is too short. And you tend to summarize a lot and then leave with a few questions/thoughts. I'd love to see you explore these in depth yourself. So... I'm not quite clear how this manipulated perception of bad boy? Did it try to make him look good? How?
ReplyDeleteI wasn't aware of Nike being accused of unethical actions, however it is very interesting how they used Lebron James in this situation. I think it is good marketing since everyone was so mesmerized by the drama of Lebron leaving, although I thought it was kind of silly.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea about this until reading your blog. I found it really interesting that nike did this, it's a bit ironic as you seem to notice as well. They tried to make it look like he was so vulnerable and didn't know what to do so people started to feel bad for him.
ReplyDeleteThat's interesting. I don't follow sports unless it's Aggie Football (and that's mainly because it was mandatory when I was in the Corps), but I think this is insteresting on Nike's part to try to sell Lebron's character in a different light (no pun intended). I don't know necessarily of this is a bad manipulation, just because i don't know much about sports, but great observation, none the less.
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