Under Armour ad mocks LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard and Allen Iverson: NBA News
On the quest of expanding their apparel to a bigger market of Basketball, an American sports clothing and accessories company ‘Under Armour’ has adopted an aggressive approach and recently took shot at four NBA Legends in its television
advertisement.
The company which is endorsed by the third year point guard Brandon Jennings of Milwaukee Bucks and rookie Kemba Walker of Charlotte Bobcats recently launched a new commercial which features a guy, who takes a shot at the four
of the greatest NBA players in the last decade. The players Kobe Bryant of Los Angeles Lakers, LeBron James of Miami Heat, Dwight Howard of Orlando Magic and Allen Iverson of Philadelphia 76ers.
The ad begins, “We are not royalty. We don't claim crown to a kingdom we haven't earned yet. We don't represent the followers. The ones who get bought, the Kings, the superheroes, or the snakes that get caught and wrought in something
so fictional that athletes turn into actors, legacy reduced to a press conference concerning practice."
In the start of the commercial, the guy pokes at Miami Heat’s superstar LeBron James who entered the world of NBA with a nickname ‘King’. The 27 year old small forward James parted ways with his former employer Cleveland Cavaliers
after seven dominating years and shifted his talent to the South Beach, on the quest of furnishing his resume with a championship title. LeBron is still without a championship and the ad starts with a jab at him.
‘Superheroes’ references Orlando Magic’s muscular centre Dwight Howard, who is regarded as the best centre in the league. As a result of his gigantic physique and tremendous leaping abilities, Howard is nicknamed as ‘Superman’.
Dwight wore a cape back in 2008 when he won the NBA Slam Dunk Contest which basically associates his nickname.
“The snakes” in the commercial speech refers to the nick ‘Black Mamba’ which is associated with Los Angeles Lakers legendary shooting guard Kobe Bryant. Black Mamba is one of the deadliest snakes in the world while Bryant is considered
as the deadliest player in the league.
Lastly, “the press conference concerning practices” references Philadelphia 76ers scoring machine Allen Iverson. It recalls Allen’s famous rant in a press conference in which he said the word ‘practice’ a number of times to reject
the news that he didn’t practiced the whole year.
The motive of Under Armour is to promote their brand. However, they have taken a rather precarious route in doing so. The stars that the company decided to apparently mock are the biggest trump cards as far as the marketing business
is concerned. James and Bryant are with Nike, Howard is with Adidas and Iverson was with Reebok for a long time.
In comparison to these elite brands, Under Armour does not even enter the race. Even if they had any chance of doing that, they have spoiled that by taking on the biggest money drawers of the league.
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