Basketball receives next to no attention here in the UK. It’s something when trade press start talking about the game. In this instance we’ve the ever-on-the-ball Sarah Crawley-Boevey of Brand Republic reporting “PR mess continues for Nike as it returns banned tapes”.
Here’s the fuzzy YouTube footage that upset Nike so much.
What’s going on here is that LeBron James, one of the NBA’s superstars, was out manoeuvred by a rookie called Jordan Crawford. Big deal? It was to Nike. When they found out that two journalists had taken the footage durning the skills academy game they demanded it was handed over to them.
As Sarah points out; the entire incident would have gone unnoticed had Nike not made it into a story.
This is a challenge for big brands, though, and we do have sympathy for Nike. It’s often said that a good way to cope with a drama or issue in the social media landscape is to nip it in the bud before it ever becomes an issue in the first place. Perhaps that’s what Nike was trying here.
What do you think?
July 28, 2009
PR