Kobe Bryant Might Win A Giant Stuffed Animal

Word on the street today is that influential advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy is helping to produce a new fully animated TV campaign for ESPN and ABC’s NBA coverage:

Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Dirk Nowitzki and Gilbert Arenas are among the players who will star, albeit in animated form, in a new campaign from ESPN touting its coverage of the NBA. Four spots will break this week, each showing players or teams attempting to surpass something they already have achieved on the court.

In “The Feats,” we see Bryant at a High Striker, the hammer-and-bell device found at carnivals with which participants test their strength. Instead of a hammer, however, he slams a Spalding basketball on the platform to send a projectile up the tower. In reference to the 81 points he scored in a game last January, the tower is marked by increasingly difficult levels that read 70, 80, 90 and, at the top, 100, the number of points Wilt Chamberlain scored in 1962 to set an NBA single-game record. Bryant changed his Los Angeles Lakers uniform number this season from 8 to 24, which a voiceover acknowledges with: “Will Kobe show us that 24 is greater than 100?”

“The Contenders” focuses on teams in prime position to vie for the NBA title. Shaquille O’Neal, Dwyane Wade and head coach Pat Riley of the NBA defending champion Miami Heat are shown with their championship rings while Dallas Mavericks’ all-star Nowitzki and head coach Avery Johnson are tying a heart together with ropes. The voiceover, referencing the Mavs loss to Miami in last season’s finals, offers, “Will the Mavericks mend a broken heart?”

Um, okaaaaay then …

The Game: ESPN, NBA Are Drawn Together … [MEDIAWEEK]

(Update: I think I just found one of the new spots online! Yeah, it stars Tayshaun Prince …)

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By J.E. Skeets at 2:59 pm on 11.20.2006 — Tags: Marketing, Media

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3 Responses to “Kobe Bryant Might Win A Giant Stuffed Animal”

  1. Howie at 4:45 pm on 11.20.2006

    Yeah, SunsGossip and I got contacted for doing those animations, we outright rejected. Even we have “standards” yo.

  2. SunsGossip at 6:02 pm on 11.20.2006

    WORD.

  3. the sockk at 8:37 pm on 11.20.2006

    Dirk looks like something that crawled out of the devil’s ass. He is a very ugly man and I question the wisdom of including him in this.

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