Wacky Ads Make Lockout Bearable

There's not much funny about the NBA lockout and the looming loss of an entire season -- except the TV commercials it's inspired.

"It's a joke -- a joke!" exclaims Detroit Pistons star Grant Hill.

He's not talking about the owners' latest settlement offer. It's his recorded answer on an "800-TALL-MEN" phone line set up by NBA sponsor Sprite, supposedly for those wanting to hire 6-foot-8 Hill and 7-footer Tim Duncan of San Antonio for such jobs as changing light bulbs or pruning trees.

In another commercial, Hill and Duncan are retained by a teen-ager to deliver newspapers, walk dogs and mow lawns.

Nike, another company with NBA links, features celebrity basketball fans in a series of farcical commercials with the tag line: "Start the season. Hurry."

The Nike spots have included Spike Lee, Dyan Cannon, Jackie Chan, Steve Guttenberg and Samuel L. Jackson seeking alternative basketball outlets.

Cannon enthusiastically waves pompoms and yells "over-40 parks and rec basketball -- it's FAN-tastic!" A grinning Jackson watches raptly as teens play a backyard game of H-O-R-S-E. "It's FAN-tastic," he declares.

"I think they're great," Gary Stibel of the New England Consulting Group said of the Sprite and Nike approaches to the lockout. "You've got to make the best out of a bad situation, and humor is a great way to do that."

With the talks between the players and owners at a stalemate, the Nike commercials humorously empathize with fans.

"We're not taking sides on the issues that have forced the delay of the NBA season," said Ralph Greene, Nike's global basketball director. "We just want them to resolve their issues and play ball."

The Sprite spots present the millionaire players in a self-deprecating light that Stibel, an NBA fan himself, finds appealing.

"Poking fun at a time like this is a way to leverage an existing relaionship," he said.

The "Tall Men" spots fit into the satirical bent of advertising by Sprite, which has been one of the nation's fastest-growing soft drinks in the last five years since focusing on young consumers.

Mart Martin, a spokesman for Coca-Cola Co., said its Sprite brand will continue to sponsor the NBA.

"We're in this for the long term," he said. "This (lockout) did not change our plans."

Coke in June announced that Sprite and the NBA had agreed to a new four-year marketing partnership that could be extended up to 100 years.

Since beginning its NBA tie-in four years earlier, Sprite has enjoyed double-digit sales growth every year during a time when the NBA has also increased in popularity among youths targeted by Sprite.

"The NBA has been a valuable promotional tool," said John Sicher, publisher of the trade journal Beverage Digest. "But Sprite is a very powerful brand, and the NBA is only part of its arsenal of marketing weapons. (Losing) one season certainly won't dent Sprite."

In the meantime, Sprite is keeping some of its NBA stars working. They're pitching the drink and a Sprite contest called "Salary Cap," a tongue-in-cheek reference to one of the NBA contract issues.

"We decided to seize the moment," Martin said.

As proof of the strong response to the commercials that began airing at the end of November, Martin cited some 350,000 calls to the "Tall Men" phone line in the first two weeks.

"It's been bizarre," Martin said, saying the company had expected calls to number in the hundreds. "It's a classic case of curiosity getting the best of people."

© 1998 SportsLine USA, Inc. All rights reserved