ESPN's LeBron James Show Fits With Its History of Whoring Its News Division to Advertisers
You should not be surprised that ESPN gave up control of its advertising schedule and its news reporters to LeBron James so that he can turn what should have been a routine press conference into a reality TV drama titled "The Decision," which airs tonight at 9 p.m.: ESPN has a history of prostituting its news division to advertisers dating back to the late 1990s.
In the deal, James will give ESPN the exclusive on which NBA team he has decided to play for now that he's a free agent. In return, ESPN agreed to let James pick the reporter who interviews him and the advertisers who will appear on the show. Commercial revenue will go to the Boys & Girls Club of America, giving both James and ESPN the charity figleaf to hide behind. According to Ad Age:
The ESPN show will be "co-presented" by the University of Phoenix and Microsoft's Bing search engine, with Coca-Cola's VitaminWater and McDonald's also lending a sponsorship hand. Nike and Coca-Cola's Sprite are also making contributions ...Nike, Sprite, VitaminWater and McDonald's are all current or previous sponsorship clients of James'.
The deal has a similar feel to the one ESPN (a unit of Disney (DIS)) struck with the federal government in 1999. At the time, the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy was running a $175 million a year ad campaign against drug abuse. (You might remember its "This is your brain on drugs" ad).
ESPN agreed to air some of those commercials in addition to providing matching public service airtime of its own for anti-drug messaging. Rather than run its own "The More You Know" type in-house spots, ESPN instead offered its own news programming as a match, according to this report from the now-defunct APBnews.com, which was based on documents obtained from the ONDCP. ESPN shows whose coverage of drug use in sports qualified for the federal government's match included SportsCenter, Outside the Lines, Monday Night Countdown, SportsWeekly, SportsCentury and Upclose. They featured baseball player Darryl Strawberry's drug use, among other topics.
ESPN was so enthusiastic about the government's ad money-matching scheme that Laurie Greenberg, the network's vp of multimedia ad sales wrote to the White House, "We are pleased to let you know that ESPN has overdelivered the match for the year!" ESPN denied at the time that it ran anti-drug propaganda for the Clinton Administration, and claimed the editorial content of its shows were not censored by the government (even though the matching money was dependent on the government's approval of their content).
"The Decision" will doubtless be a huge ratings grabber, but not everyone is enthused about the circus-like atmosphere of it. CBS News (a sister company to BNET) collected these reactions:
"Disgusting" and "repulsive" ego, says CBSSports.com's Gregg DoyelRelated:"Unchecked vanity," declares FoxSports.com's Kevin Hench.
"LeBron's ego shows entering spotlight: Even charity gesture seems to be self-serving," reads the headline of Marla Ridenour's column in the Akron Beacon Journal.
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