I RATE ADS

sjbooher: Love it. Taking clips of what (Marvin Gaye’s performance at the 1983 NBA All-Star Game) is regarded as the greatest rendition of the national anthem of all time and combining it with shots of Team USA practicing? Brilliant. These guys have worked for 3 years — and arguably their entire lives — to ensure they have an entirely different rendition of the Star Spangled Banner forever ingrained in their memories — the one playing during the Men’s Basketball Medal Ceremony. While this long version borders on AEM, there is a succinct 30 second version that is airing throughout the Olympics, which still gets the point across. I’m also a big fan of the iconic “Just Do It” tagline, which this spot uses at the end. My only criticism is that Nike could probably have spotted their product a little better, but in this case, advertising the team is essentially the equivalent of advertising their company. I’m a hopeless basketball/music romantic, and this ad was made for me. A.

jtherkal: Nike–aka W+K–has a real thing for finding some footage, putting a song to it and calling it a commercial. Granted, there’s a bit more to this concept than that. And their string of outstanding branding practices have enabled them to throw this formula out there and have it succeed time after time. But this one doesn’t quite do it for me. I don’t know if it’s the wrong shots, if it’s too long, if it doesn’t really look like they’re busting their asses, but surprisingly, something fails to give me the chills or get me fired up, as so many Nike ads do. It’s still not bad. B-.

In related news, I interviewed some of these guys in Vegas while they were getting ready for the games. I’m famous. SJB had practice access–we’re both famous! The highlight was asking Tyson Chandler how he sleeps in hotel beds when he travels, does he order giant beds? Put a rollaway at the bottom if a normal one? The answer: Curled up on his side, just like me. The other highlight was that Jason Kidd’s girlfriend had a BANGIN’ body. You could almost see her goodies when she bent over the Kraft services table to get some candy. Coach K has a foul mouth.

sjbooher: One of the biggest events of this Olympic games was the USA v. China basketball match-up. Coke took advantage of that by combining two of the biggest stars in the world this spot. It’s creative, awesome, fun, visually pleasing, and the feel good story of the year, at the end. Of course I love Coke, basketball, LeBron James, Yao Ming and the Olympics! Still, this is well done. I do have to stay true to my principles, I guess, and dock it slightly for the late product placement. A.

jtherkal: Fun, positive, big name stars, good music, fun animation, timely release–Coke knows what it’s doing. I want to eat egg rolls, drink a Coke, and dance to that song. Mission accomplished. Maybe the USA and China can unite to oppress other nations and conquer the world. If only they’d agree to capitalism and stop the “one and done” child rule, we’d be golden. A.

jtherkal: On the whole, this campaign feels tired to me. Yawn. But this is miles better than the Shaquille O’neal one, which I officially hate now. Lebron, again showing his acting skills, gives a strong performance and I like the use of the basketball in his argument. That news lady at the beginning is annoying, though. B. Orange-orange VitaminWater is the new Gatorade.

sjbooher: I love this one. Of course, I’m a huge basketball fan and generally a LeBron fan, but as far as celebrity spokespeople in general go, LeBron does a great job here. He is a natural. I am not sure how the news lady is annoying… seems like a run-of-the-mill reporter, to me. I like that they use her to make sure the product takes center stage. Definitely one of the better ads in this campaign.

sjbooher: I love the idea… but I think I only like the result. I have a couple problems. First, Kobe vs. Shaq is soooooooooo 2004. There are so many storylines in the Western Conference Playoffs this year, that it seems weak and lazy to try and drum up more Shobe controversy. My second problem is with the LeBron/KG edition… well, I just realized it is not as much of a problem, after re-listening. I thought they both said “I remember seeing Bird win it all”, but after listening closely, LeBron says “Jordan”. Still though… this version is obviously scripted, since they would not both have nearly identical quotes, and I bet they forced KG to say “Bird”, just because he plays in Boston now. He is fo sho a Jordan baby. Anyway, they could have put up a black screen with “NBA Playoffs” written on it for 30 seconds, and I would have been excited, but the NBA did not reach the full potential with these. B.

Now, jtherkal, say it with me one time… PLAYOFFS?!?!?!?

jtherkal: Yes! Don’t talk to me about playoffs! Kobe was on PTI yesterday and they asked him about this, which was kind of funny. But sjb is right, let Shaq and Kobe go. The only way I’ll care about that now is if Shaq would actually go Incredible Hulk on Kobe. HULK SMASH KOBE! These ads were alright, but kind of forgettable. There is so much drama in the NBA, as my associate said, specifically out west, and these don’t really capture that. Probably a clever idea on paper, but falls flat in execution. C.

And just for fun, my all time favorite press conference:

We talking about practice?!