Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good. Nike is both.
Consider this past weekend’s bounty:
Relentless ad rotations of the new Sparq (association in part with Velocity Sports Performance Centers) that create buzz without ever showing the gear.
Prominent Nike swoosh placement on the winner’s yellow jersey at the Paris-Nice professional bike race, even though Nike is not marketing 2008 cycling shoes or [...]
Watching ESPN Sports Center Sunday night I couldn’t help noticing the State Farm logo on nearly every basketball hoop NCAA and NBA. Bright red sign visible from the court-side cameras. Not to be outdone, Geico has bought similar locations, while Progressive is opting for scorer’s table signage.
An ad campaign kick-off built around basketball instead of automobiles that race for 500 miles every weekend in front [...]
A New York Times clip today on golf is the most emailed (as of 10:30 a.m. PST). It points out the struggles of the business (in fairness, Callaway Golf had a record year in 2007).
Factors contributing to slide in number of golfers? Rounds take 4 or more hours, too few players want to pick up the game, and kids’ soccer games have become weekend priority. Here’s [...]
Oakley, the premium athletic sunglass and eye protection brand, has rolled out print ads that stretch beyond tradition. This one features a goggle called the “Crowbar” and includes a wrestling scene with snowboarder Eero Ettala.
Does it feel extreme to you? I suppose.
But any photograhic stills from this video would do just as well — or [...]
Word that HBO will do a movie based on the book, “Game of Shadows,” is timely. With Barry Bonds under federal indictment, a new final chapter must be written into the best-seller by San Francisco Chronicle staffers Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada (now of ESPN). The legal twist gives instant life to a move script (more salacious details!) even though we know the main [...]
Dick Pound draws blood, ripping professional baseball on its drug testing program. Top section from tomorrow’s NYT from a story out of Madrid, where doping experts are meeting: After years of criticizing Major League Baseball for what he called useless, toothless drug-testing policies, Dick Pound, chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency, chastised the sport again [...]
Bud Selig must want to spit. Once he opens his eyes, that is. After beaming at the World Series about how Major League Baseball had its best year at the gate, he now must go silent on the Barry Bonds matter. Asterisks, denials, hypocrisy. Professional baseball knows it needs steroids to go away, with Barry [...]
The Open Championship at Carnoustie in Scotland looks nothing like the 1953 black-and-white version won by Ben Hogan. One of golf’s four majors, the tournament is a world-class exercise in product placement. And golfers love it. Golf is an aspirational sport, game, pastime. Weekend choppers and hackers who carry a 20 index believe that the [...]
