LeBron Slam Dunks the Basket Ball After Bouncing it on a Kung Fu Master
I first saw this ad at the train station in KL. Then I noticed that several versions of the ad were placed at numerous stations around the city. The ads are not even great pictures of him. He looks all greasy and sweaty. I wondered, 'What's up with the fascination of LeBron and what does it have to do with Asian people?' I thought maybe it was for a new Kung Fu movie he was in...
Later, I realized it's an ad by Nike for LeBron's new video game. A Sports Illustrated article mentioned that 'Chinese regulators have banned the Nike ad featuring LeBron James, saying they find the depiction of the player defeating a martial arts master and other animated characters to be disrespectful to Chinese traditional culture. Still, the Chinese seem willing to accept a compromise ad in which LeBron is viciously dunked on by Yao Ming.'
NBA, Nike and LeBron all must have choked on their steamed dumplings when they found out many people are now accusing the ad of insulting China's culture. This goes to show you that even large international corporations like Nike should do some more cultural research before releasing an ad. I'm sure this negatively effects the sales of their product as well as the reputation of LeBron to the country that holds the largest population on earth!
posted by Adelle at 16:26
1 Comments:
I totally agree. It is funny that you said, "This goes to show you that even large international corporations like Nike should do some more cultural research before releasing an ad." I was thinking the same thing (almost) when I heard track 11 on The Game's "The Documentary" CD. My first issue, unrelated to this topic, is that there is a very young boy cursing, name-calling, and being so disrespectful to the stereotyped Asian woman at the counter of the store as he claimed to have given her a $20 instead of $5 and demanded her to give him his change. How could any parent be proud of their child landing that role? I hope they get turned down for every other job they apply their child to because of this. Also, how can any Asian person represent all store clerks who happen to be Asian and agree to be disrespected like that by a child? Is it just to get paid for contrbuting to the CD? Is it that they want to encourage ignorant people to continue stereotyping and offending other people? I hope that, for her own sake, that woman is not actually Asian. My other issue, more related to the NBA, Nike and LeBron thing, is that the boy says, "I'm not going to sit here and argue with you and your flat a** face. This is America . . ." As soon as I heard him, I wanted to break that CD in half and boycott The Game and anyone associated with him for puting that on his CD because I was so offended. You know that out of all the people that will buy or listen to this CD, some may be ignorant enough to find that statement, and the whole skit even, to be so funny. How many will have it playing around other children who will then think it's proper behavior and language for anyone of any age? I wonder if The Game has an e-mail address, so I can let him know how I really feel. Would he even apologize? I tink it would still be worth my time to find a way to let him know.
6:09 PM
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