DASI

In recent times, the word “Fail” has wormed its way into much more common use, thanks in no small part to our American cousins. There are numerous sites and blogs dedicated to ‘The Fail’, all of which basically take great pleasure out of seeing someone attempt something, and get it undeniably (and often painfully) wrong. For a great example in the corporate world, step forward that great bastion of American sporting excellence: Nike.

Nike have been involved with some truly inspirational digital projects in their time; in particular Nike+ (developed with RG/A) set the bar when it came to taking digital out into the real world. Which is why it’s so surprising to come across stories like this one in Brand Republic. In a nutshell, one of Nike’s biggest US basketball stars, LeBron James, was at a skills academy with a group of college players and proceeded to get ‘dunked-on.’ In English terms, I imagine it’s the equivalent to the cheeky school kid ‘megging’ John Terry before slotting it home. It appears there weren’t that many people there at the game and, other than being well appreciated by the few that were there, the moment passed fairly quickly. However, someone at Nike felt there was a chance that their prized asset could have his image tarnished and promptly got all heavy handed – demanding the footage from those journalists at the event.

Now, as we all know, there’s nothing better at stirring up the desire for something than being told you can’t have it – it’s human nature. My grandparents used to call it the ‘sh*t with egg on it’ effect (as in, “If I had some, you’d want some”) and anyone who has a partner who turns down an offer of food, only to have them sit and pick the lion’s share off your plate knows it all too well.

When you multiply this SWEOI effect by the power of a big brand and the ease with which information can now spread, it’s no surprise that Nike now has a bit of a PR disaster on its hands. Inevitably, the footage found its way onto You Tube et al and now over a million people have seen it, fuelled by the numerous mentions in the press and blogosphere. As with the United Airlines guitar breaking video, (see 2 posts ago) the little man quickly becomes the powerhouse in these situations.

What this really shows is the incredible importance of truly understanding the implications of your actions in a world which is now unbelievably connected. It’s no longer a case of just pushing your message out to the consumer; the way you conduct your business is in the public eye and rest assured if you screw up, you’ll not be able to sweep it under your lovely branded carpet.

Surely these moments are what the ‘LeBron James Skills Academies’ are actually all about? The chance to play against a legend, and perhaps get that one moment on which you can dine out for years, the one to tell the grand kids. They should be embraced and championed; after all, he’s just another bloke, albeit a 6ft 8” highly paid one. The rumour is that it may have been that James himself was behind the initial request and if that is the case he needs a reality check, and Nike and his advisors need to grow some basket balls.

By playing Big Brother, Nike has managed to spin a story of minor amusement, from footage in which it’s actually pretty hard to make out what’s going on, into a fairly major embarrassment – it even had to give the tapes back. For proof, you only search “LeBron James Dunk” in Google, above all his amazing performances; the top result is coverage on this very story.

An epic fail indeed.