Controversial Kobe-LeBron Nike ad alludes to guns

[.40 Cal Flakes]

An advertisement featuring the NBA's two biggest superstars includes a gun reference in the same week that two players were suspended for carrying firearms to the locker room.

The Nike ad, which appears in several publications including Sports Illustrated and ESPN The Magazine, has LeBron James on one page and Kobe Bryant on the other. Along with the slogan, "Prepare For Combat," is a quote from each player showing how tough he is.

Bryant's blurb says: "I'll do whatever it takes to win games. I don't leave anything in the chamber."

The chamber in a gun is the compartment that holds the bullet before it is fired.

NBA commissioner David Stern was sensitive to the issue of gun violence, and the NBA criticized the ad.

"We had no prior notice of this ad," spokesman Tim Frank said. "We think it is inappropriate."

http://www.tsn.ca/nba/story/?id=308150

Wow terrible timing and in extremely poor taste.

[huskies2raps]

Timing was bad, but the fact is that this ad was created months before the whole Arenas incident happened so there was no intention of actually referencing the whole gun situation with this ad - just a matter of bad timing is all
- BALL

[Bendit]

It's an American cultural thing (guns). Even the ad-men or Nike are not immune to glorifying that pillar of constitutionality or machismo....since this might be dna related.

To be fair this is also about timing. The decision for the ad campaign must have been made far in advance to Arenas brain cramp.

[.40 Cal Flakes]

It's an American cultural thing (guns). Even the ad-men or Nike are not immune to glorifying that pillar of constitutionality or machismo....since this might be dna related.

To be fair this is also about timing. The decision for the ad campaign must have been made far in advance to Arenas brain cramp.

That's probably true, but you'd think with recent events in the NBA, the heads in charge of this ad campaign would think twice about releasing the ad, or at the very least delaying it and/or tweaking it.