Just some old thoughts I need to get off my chest.
-
Remember the “Mars Blackmon” (I don’t know where Spike Lee got that weird nickname, don’t ask) commercial with the famous line “Is it the shoes?” What you probably don’t remember is that every time he asked that question, Michael Jordan responded, “No, Mars.” Again: NO, Mars. And then at the end it had this little disclaimer: “The opinions of Michael Jordan do not necessarily reflect those of Nike, Inc.” See, the whole point of the commercial was that one of the most famous athlets in the world was openly defying the company he was paid to endorse! Get it? Irony! Unexpected twist! Embarrassment to the company! It had nothing to do with the shoes making the player, it was a company simply poking fun at itself.
-
There was a huge flap over Charles Barkley’s “I am not a role model” commercial, and yet somehow nobody seemed to care about another one of his messages that was far more offensive…namely, “Any knucklehead can score”. Yes, he actually said this, even displayed a newspaper headline which carried this repugnant message, and then went on to explain all the wonderful qualities a rebounder must have. I can only imagine what “kuckleheads” like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain, and, yes, Michael Jordan must have thought upon hearing such vile slander. (Probably something like “Hey, that’s not a real newspaper!” :p)
-
In a commercial that run during the '96 Olympics, Hakeem Olajuwon misinterpreted one of his team’s bold taunts and ended up treating every basketball team in Atlanta to lunch. He looked positively dumbfounded as he received the (presumably enormous) check. Just one problem…he was making $4 million a year at the time! I think he can cover one lunch!
-
And finally, the “one year later” ad. This was supposedly a continuation of the Horse game Larry Bird and Michael Jordan started during the last Super Bowl. (Yes, I know it’s farfetched, but bear with me.) However, there’s a problem. A few months earlier, McDonalds did a promo where Michael Jordan squared off against someone else (an ordinary fan, you don’t know him), and he commented idly to the camer, “Here we go again.” This meant that the original game ended, which means that the continuation was…gulp…a CONTINUUITY ERROR! How could they??
Whew…hey, that was fun. All right, everybody, feel free to inundate me with extremely angry posts about how I got Hakeem Olajuwon’s salary wrong.