Nike and Vitamin Water Venture into Risky PR Territory with Ad Campaigns

Although most sports organizations divide up its business into separate departments (marketing, advertising, sales, community relations, etc.) the one common denominator in all areas of operations is public relations.

Anytime a sports organization communicates a message of any type to its audience, the message must be vetted by a public relations expert to sniff out any potential communications missteps or embarrassing blunders.

Two separate advertising campaigns promoting LeBron James and Kobe Bryant have been in full swing this NBA Playoff season as Nike’s “Most Valuable Puppets” and Vitamin Water’s “The Great Debate” have pitted the two NBA superstars against each other in a fun and clever showcase.

On the surface the ads are great and, I would imagine, have delivered the two brands immediate marketing success. But it’s clear that the intention for both brands is to ride the ad campaigns all the way through the NBA Finals while promoting the two players as the league’s best.

Basically, Nike and Vitamin Water invested a lot of money on the notion that LeBron and Kobe would meet in this year’s NBA Finals.

The only problem is I’m not sure the Orlando Magic and Denver Nuggets got the memo that the product pitchmen are supposed to advance and meet in the league’s championship series (both the Magic and Nuggets are challenging, respectively, LeBron’s Cleveland Cavaliers and Kobe’s Los Angeles Lakers in the Conference Finals).

Now if one or even both players should fail to advance to the NBA Finals, the advertising campaigns would be far from a catastrophe or even an embarrassment. In fact, the campaigns could still be considered a success.

But with the campaigns’ strategy centered on LeBron and Kobe meeting in The Finals, Nike and Vitamin Water put itself at risk for not only a disappointing adverting and marketing campaign but it opened themselves up for negative PR reception in the media and trades.

Remember the marketing and PR nightmare following the launch of Reebok’s Dan & Dave campaign?

The Dan & Dave TV and print ads where a huge advertising and marketing effort from Reebok that centered around rival American decathletes Dan O’Brien and Dave Johnson’s bid to win gold in the 1992 Summer Olympic Games in Barcelona.

Considered a lock that both athletes would make the U.S. Olympic Team and strong favorites to medal, the

Reebok campaign featured the tagline, "Who will be the world's greatest athlete – Dan or Dave? To be settled in Barcelona.”

So when O’Brien shockingly failed to qualify for the Olympic Team and Johnson earned only a bronze medal, the entire campaign became a flop and Reebok suffered a serious financial and PR hit.

Whenever you put your brand name behind an athlete, there’s always some level of PR risk.

There are never any guarantees that the athlete’s performance on the playing field won’t diminish or that the athlete won’t be involved in an embarrassing legal or personal issue.

So to take that risk one step further and invest millions of dollars into a prediction on how your athlete will perform on the field (or on the court, in LeBron’s and Kobe’s case) makes your brand even more vulnerable and susceptible to a negative PR impact.