Cleveland Advertisement Analysis

While James was in high school he excelled in two sports, football and his more known sport, basketball. LeBron excelled greatly in football, he was named All-State wide receiver in his sophmore year (Smithwick 10). His mom was worried about James and wanted him to quit football, so he wouldn’t get hurt. Later he broke his finger in a football game and his mother made him quit. When he was in high school, James made the rounds of the postseason all-star games, and he earned most valuable player of the year award at the McDonald’s High School All-American Game (Newsmakers B2). LeBron wanted to skip his senior year to enter into the NBA draft, but was against NBA rules, so he returned to high school now the most famous high school player. Even before James entered the NBA draft he had already signed a $90 million contract with the brand Nike (Contemporary C4). LeBron James entered the NBA draft in the summer of 2003, and was selected by the "struggling to make it in the NBA" Cleveland Cavaliers (Smithwick 14). The three year contract that James signed with the Cavaliers amounted to nothing beside the more than $100 million in endorsement contracts he has signed with Nike, Sprite, Powerade, Upper Deck Cards, and Bubblicious bubble gum. If it was anybody's guess, they would have said that James was going to play poorly in his first year, but he proved them wrong, everybody wrong. He was named rookie

The next four years, LeBron helped the Cavs improve. In the 2006-2007 year, the Cavs beat the Detroit Pistons in the semi-finals but lost in the finals against San-Antonio Spurs. During the years 2007-2008, the Cavs failed to make it to the playoffs. The following year, 2008-2009, they acquired point guard Mo Williams and Shaquille O’Neal. They lost in the second round of the playoffs to the Boston Celtics. In 2010, his contract was over with the Cavaliers. He decided to go to the Miami Heat and made two more lifelong friends, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh. That season, in the playoffs, they beat the Philadelphia 76ers, the Boston Celtics, and the Chicago Bulls but lost to the Dallas Mavericks in the championship. The next season, in 2011, the Heat beat the New York Knicks, the Indiana Pacers, and the Boston Celtics. In the championship game, the Miami Heat beat the Oklahoma City Thunder. In 2012, they beat the San Antonio Spurs in the Finals. When his contract expired in 2013, he decided to go back to the Cleveland Cavaliers where everything

Just having LeBron James – the biggest name and superstar in the NBA – come back to Cleveland after leaving for Miami four years ago was a big boost, not just emotionally but also economically for the city. But the deeper the Cavs’ run in the postseason went, the better

Every year across the United States millions of high school students are ecstatic to finally graduate and begin their lives in the “Real World.” A student is excited to finish years of consecutive papers, 8am classes, and endless homework. Although beginning college is something a newly graduated high school student might be happy about they will soon become unhappy with the affects of it. The Columbus Dispatch created an ad that grabs readers attentions with detail and shows a simplistic image that will make readers remember what they just saw. Showing a large snake with the label “Debt,” swallowing up a freshly graduated high school student, grabs reader's attention and makes them realize how student debt in college can take over a student’s life.

Lebron James, the first pick taken in this year’s draft, may be the prototype for an athlete having immediate fame and wealth by jumping straight to the NBA. Almost undoubtedly, he has set the bar for years to come. Before he even played in an actual NBA game, he already had his own commercial and shoe deals. When he was a senior in high school, ESPN and ESPN2 were already publicizing his regular season games whenever they had the chance. Amazingly, as a junior in high school, he was already being considered the next Michael Jordan (Broussard).

There are many people that hate LeBron James that want to see him fail and blame him for everything he does. The main reason people hate LeBron James is because he calls himself King James and he says that he is the best player in the world. Others would disagree and say

Point of View- It is not surprising that Cleveland would say this because he helped start the Gold Standard and does not want to back down on his actions.

At this point LeBron was already one of the NBA’s most talented players. Not everyone was happy with LeBron’s victories though. He was a very controversial player because he had left the Cavaliers, he manages to redeem himself. When the Heat lost to the Antonio Spurs in the 2013-2014 season, LeBron opted to return to Cleveland. It took awhile for LeBron to work with his new team, but they managed to make it to the NBA Finals.

Kevin Durant lost the semi-finals in 2016 against golden state warriors and in 2017 he joined golden state warriors. He said “if you can’t beat them, join them.” That left a lot of hate from his teammates and his fans. At this moment we burned all our jerseys on Kevin because of how much we hate him for what he did. Same with other players, it’s really hard to see our favourite players leave their team.

Obviously, this was the main attention got from this commercial. As what can be observed, the sportscaster who was previously preparing for his report was suddenly awe-struck by James' hoops and immediately made sure that his cameraman was capturing the moment on video. In this commercial of a sports drink, however, this appeal shows up in a way related to how a particular drink can actually give someone incomparable energy, that he or she may be able to do things seemingly impossible for other people to do – such as shooting 90-foot hoops like what James did in this commercial. People are always in need of attention. Without attention, people do not have ways on perceiving whether or not they are loved, cared for or appreciated. And though not in this extent, people also need attention in order to feel some sense of confidence. In a crowd, people who easily attract other people are usually those who are confident about how they look and act in public. But on the contrary, the people who easily consider themselves as wallflowers are usually left with very low self esteems since the lack of attention easily entails lack of appeal and can also be lack of significance. In this particular ad, the subject –Lebron James – was portrayed with so much significance and prominence. The attention of his co-players and literally the entire arena, even the sportscaster and the cameraman's

The target demographic is males between the ages of 10-45 who watch sports or at least know who Kobe Bryant is or knows who some of the other athletes are in the commercial. People who are active Nike supporters or watch sports can relate to this

and the list goes on but these are just a few of the major accomplishments of Lebron James. Due to his great success in the NBA, James has many endorsement deals behind him. Lebron James is endorsed by Nike, Sprite, Glaceau, Bubblicious, and Upper Deck. James has also done many commercials such as a series titled “MVPuppets,” and he also did a series based on him and Kobe competing to be the NBA champions. Lebron was also ranked number one in the Forbes top 20 Earners under 25 with annual earnings of $27 million dollars.

Brown was replaced by David Blatt in 2014. That year in free agency, LeBron James decided that he wanted to return to the Cleveland Cavaliers. In addition, the Cavaliers traded Wiggins for Kevin Love, a proven top power forward.

Recently Nike dropped a commercial titled “Want It All” and it is an extremely interesting advertisement. Nike just became the new official sponsor of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and it needed an advertisement to excite the fans of the league and get them excited for the new season. Nike took the spot from one of its top rivals in the athletic wear world, Adidas, so they needed to put out a strong front and show people that they were just as good if not better than their competitor. Nike is an extremely well known distributor for athletic wear and sporting goods. In the commercial, Nike uses a fictional person who goes by the name of Donte Grand and is an extremely skilled basketball player. He grows up in the inner-city and does not come from a lot, but he excels in basketball and shows that no matter where you come from, if you want it all, you are going to have to go and get it. Throughout the commercial, he transitions from his front yard to the local outdoor court, to his high school, college, and eventually pro teams where he is playing in the NBA Finals which is the championship with big time Nike sponsored players such as Kevin Durant and Lebron James. The advertisement uses ethos and pathos to help convey its message.

Lebron James asked himself, do I want to be feared or loved as he ended weeks of silence and drama on Jul 8, 2010 with his ESPN special, “The Decision”. He revealed that he would be leaving his beloved home of Cleveland to join forces with NBA superstars Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh in South Beach, Miami. The sports world was left in disarray as the overwhelming negative response circulated the country. James turned the negative feedback he received from his decision to the theme of his Nike commercial. Nike dropped “Rise” on Oct. 27, 2010 and in 90 seconds; the ad manages to touch on LeBron’s decision and the entire negative backlash.