Kobe vs. Lebron is about to Become Dan vs Dave 2.0 in Marketing Fail

Leading up to the 1992 Olympic games, Reebok pumped millions of dollars into an advertising campaign many of us will still remember. Dan vs. Dave, featured 2 Decathletes who were viewed as the two favorites to win the gold medal. Why they chose Decathletes blows my mind, but at least they avoided Harding vs Kerrigan. That marketing campaign started with multiple commercials during the Super Bowl and continued at a feverish pace until a month until the Olympics. Why did Reebok nip it in the bud before the start of the Olympic games?

Dan (the favorite between the two to win), failed to qualify for the Olympic team. If I recall correctly he just had to not get disqualified in the pole vault to advance. Instead he kept trying at a height he thought he could clear and ended up missing out on the Olympics and having to cheer for Dave in subsequent Reebok commercials (spokesperson walk of shame). Fast forward 17 years later and look what we have brewing. This time around, its not 1 company but rather 2 who are on the verge of pre maturely blowing their advertising load. Nike and Vitamin Water have similar Kobe vs Lebron campaigns. Both have bought run of site espn.com front page campaigns in addition to millions spent in television ad buys. ESPN.com ads

Television Spots

While both campaigns don’t explicitly say the Cavs will play the Lakers, its clear both companies hoped that the 2 would face off in the NBA finals and that these commercials would serve as a great side dish to the main course that America, the NBA, and corporate America yearned for. Both Vitamin Water and Nike put the foot on the accelerator with these campaigns starting the beginning of NBA Semi Finals. I am sure the Rockets gave marketing people at both agencies a scare, but the Lakers survived and now both teams were 4 wins away from the dream match-up. Fast forward a week and the Lakers are locked into a war with the Nuggets tied at 2-2 and the Cavs are a 1 loss away from elimination. Given that ad buying usually happens weeks in advance, its likely that both Nike and Vitamin Water are on the hook for multiple spots in the NBA Finals regardless if one, two, or neither of the teams advance. Will they substitute other advertisements in their place? Choose to run them anyways? Or try to sell the ad buys at a discount to other companies? Not a good position to be in to say the least. It was a roll of the dice, seemed like a sure thing, but in the end is going to be a huge advertising disaster. In the end, I think they won’t be able to run any of these spots anymore as its somewhat emberassing for the guy who ends up not making it to the Finals. In the end, the safer thing to do is follow up a great sports rivalry with an ad campaign rather then prognosticate when that seems imminent to happen. I remember trying to get the Pay Per View for Hakeem vs Shaq in their crunchy vs soft taco fued. Someone backed out and I forget who. Would have been blogtastic.