Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Basketball and International Culture and Footwear Purveyors... Oh my.



Following up on our in-class discussion last week regarding Nike's failed attempt to mesh Chinese culture and basketball, I saw this new commercial by Adidas featuring Derek Rose taking on Toreros.

I think it's interesting on several levels. Firstly, the timing is a little awkward given that Spain recently outlawed bullfighting due to animal cruelty. I would assume, given the popularity of basketball in Spain, that this ad was originally intended to air over there and I wonder if it still did (I doubt it). It's possible that Adidas decided to air the ad in the States in order to get some mileage from it and hopefully get some marketing traction from it. Given that the NBA season is expected to start at least a month late as a result of the lock-out, even that seems less likely.

Rose has grown in prominence in the NBA following a stellar college career, so it's understandable that Adidas would want to feature him as a star in the sport and a premier endorser of their equipment. Granted, Rose plays for the Chicago Bulls, but is a bull fight really the best concept to use here to highlight his talents? I'm not so sure.

Even if we assume that bull fighting continued in Spain - we should acknowledge the popularity of the sport in parts of Latin America as well - would the ad have been successful? How does it portray Spanish/Hispanic culture? What do you think about this ad? Does it make the same mistakes that Nike made? More to the point, would this ad inspire somebody from Spain to go out and buy Adidas sneakers?


2 comments:

  1. Dear Evan,

    Your post raises insightful questions. Given that I resided (and worked) in Spain for four years and had the opportunity to attend a bull fight in Andalusia, I posses a dual lens through which I can view this ad.

    First, I am able to see the ad through an American lens. Watching an African American, basketball playing, super star show off his skills in a Spanish bull-fighting arena, fostered a sense of pride in my country. I felt the urge to cheer him on as he dodged the strikes against "toreros", or "bull fighters" and dribbled through the Spanish flag waved as a target for attack and then, again, as he is showered with roses upon victory.

    However, the part of me that is still very connected to Spanish culture and the four formative years I spent living in Spain, received the ad in a very different way. Even if a Spaniard is a basketball fan and seduced by the glitz and glamour of the NBA culture, one can not help but feel the ad's suggestion of the "us vs them" message encoded in the production; in other words, Rose represents America and the bull fighters represent Spain. Given that bull fighting is an ancient tradition in Spain, with roots traced back to Roman rule, pinning Rose against what is representative of a once revered, cultural ritual, demonstrates that this ad used about as much tact as the Nike ad in China.

    In order to assess or predict this ad's success in Spain, I think it's important to look at the target audience who would ultimately decide what is more important in modern Spanish society today: the seduction of what's cool and all powerful (even if it means disowning one's sense of nationalism) or the preservation of all that is rooted in ancient ritual, tradition and a sense of nationalism.

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  2. Evan:

    You raise a very fascinating argument. It seems to me that advertisers are being less sensitive to cultural norms and acceptances. Although this commericial never went over the air, it still is still is available for viewing on sites like Youtube. I am interested in knowing why the same braodcast rules and regulations that are applied to television aren't applied to the Interenet. Human beings are now viewing Internet content just as much as they are viewing television content.I just think that this airing on Youtube is equally harmful.

    Furthermore, I think that is on the part of sports agents as well as professional leagues to inform athletes about agreeing to take part in commercials and advertisements that send mixed signals and can be harming to other countries.In a perfect situation, athletes could a course on international relations and media before they even participate in a game. Of course, this would be if it were a perfect situation.

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