One underrated aspect of the NBA’s resurgence this year has been the league’s advertisements.
Since October, the NBA has rolled out innovative and dramatic ads that have treated the game with the type of reverence and gravitas usually expected of NFL Films. The NBA’s new slogan, “Where Amazing Happens”, has given a league that was severely damaged after the Tim Donaghy scandal a fresh new look.
Currently, the league is in the midst of arguably its largest ever playoff ad campaign, which features players from opposing teams in a split screen, talking in unison about what it means to be in the playoffs. At the end of the ads, the phrase “There Can Only Be One” fills the center of the screen. Considering that previous playoff ad campaigns featured highlights set to the music of Christina Aguilera, Pink, and a digitally reanimated Frank Sinatra, the new ads are a significant improvement.
The ads, directed by the team behind the movie Little Miss Sunshine, are apparently so effective that even the venerable Time Magazine took notice. This week’s cover of Time features Presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in a split screen, with the caption “There Can Only Be One.”
The magazine acknowledges that the cover was inspired by the NBA ad campaign, though The New Republic was convinced Time ripped off one of their covers.
The idea that a professional sport’s ad campaign can influence — even slightly — the coverage of a presidential race in a major U.S. publication is relatively stunning. Moreover, it goes to show not just how impressive the NBA’s ads have been this year, but also how relevant the league remains, though in diminished status from ten years ago, on the American landscape.
