Ian Schafer is the CEO over there at Deep Focus. He likes to blog sometimes, and tweet, and watch commercials so we asked him to dissect the LeBron James + Nike ‘Chalk’ spot that’s been airing, oh, everywhere lately. He posted his thoughts on his blog, but we nabbed part of it and posted it below. Click through to IanSchaefer dot com to see the rest.
Take it away, Ian.
“LeBron James has a pre-game ritual of reaching into the chalk/talc basket near the scorer’s table, rubbing it on his hands, then throwing it into the air. It’s electrifying, and the crowd usually goes wild. It looks like this:”
“The track in the spot is ‘Candyman’ from Cornershop (they also scored a charting hit in 1997 with ‘Brimful of Asha’) which I believe may have gotten a little remix from Lil’ Wayne. And that track is several years old, but a hip-hop masterpiece.
The song title, ‘Candyman’ is usually used to reference drug pushers.
Lil’ Wayne made his first few bucks by selling cocaine.
Lil’ Wayne is in the stands in the spot.
Lil’ Wayne also brushes the chalk off his feet – possibly an allusion to his rise from the streets to fame — and giving up on cocaine.”
Click here to see Ian put the whole thing together.
More: “Nike — kicking ass again…”