My perspective is boxing, my sentiments are boxing, and as a
sports lover I view other sports with my Boxing goggles on. As a niche sport we
draw the eyeballs and interest of the sports world twice a year in correlation
with the self-ordained “Face of Boxing” Floyd Mayweather's "Mexican
stimulus plan". It’s a great gig for all of those involved but when you
see LeBron James’ latest commercial you realize how far we’ve fallen in
relevance-and this is relative to the overall lack of a real face to keep the
sport in the more acceptable segments of our society. Actually we haven’t had
that kind of figure since Ray Leonard, so even party animal Oscar De La Hoya
failed to put a civilized face on the fight game.
Consider this, LeBron James circa 2010 was a pariah due to
his exit from Middle America and now he’s in two of the most heartwarming
commercials on air today! The commercial that highlights LeBron playing with
his sons while his wife records them
with the new LG Galaxy smartphone is one of the more humanizing pieces of propaganda
I’ve seen in years. Mind you, he’s tattooed, he “knows” rappers and he wants
his money the same as Floyd Mayweather- he just chose to not make these traits
a significant part of his persona. Our guy markets himself on it not realizing
elite products “whisper” exclusivity- Floyd could have easily been in Diddy’s
vodka commercials but he exudes the kind of wealth classy wealth avoids .LeBron
can actually sell his character, and thus the brand as well as his sport, even
in Football season. We have a “face” with a rather contentious relationship
with women (aka “family), a man who loves his kids (like any parent) but most
of his private footage is filled with stooges and blank faced booty models
staring at their phones. Just a bunch of people sitting around listening to him
talk shit. If there is anything likeable about any Boxer Madison Avenue wouldn’t
know it, LeBron’s “family” commercial made me think of Andre Ward who isn’t
anonymous due to style alone. He’s also in a sport that sends the clear message
that black boxers have to be jackasses to get merely noticed, something
resorted to by Floyd- because black folks are NBA fans.
When Floyd tells you “Boxing isn’t a gentleman’s game” he’s
right but that isn’t the point, and it certainly isn’t an excuse for why he isn’t
in that damned commercial- he isn’t marketable because he’s unlikeable. And
believe it or not, that makes Boxing unlikeable- commercials often lie, and we don’t
even have representatives smart enough to lie to people who want to be lied to.
Once upon a time(more like 1981) an African American BOXER smiled and did a
commercial for a soft drink that is still on the shelves at your local grocery
store. His then adorable son made the commercial iconic by answering kids who called Sugar Ray Champ “no, that’s just
my dad” and it worked-so much so that LeBron James and Samsung used the formula
today. Money don't make you the face of an industry, in fact if that
industry is marginalized and you are the “face” you shouldn’t brag about it. Even
the President is experiencing some shame due to the Affordable Health Care Act
bearing his name, if he was a Boxer he’d be bragging about the shit. Floyd
Mayweather is the leader in boxing generating earnings, nothing more, to be the
“face” of something you have to be an ambassador and we haven’t really had one
since Sugar Ray Leonard. In terms of endorsement, our sport resembles the Dave Chappelle
skit “When keeping it real” goes horribly wrong- and with Adrien Broner “on
deck” look for this trend to continue into the foreseeable future.
Basketball gets cute Family Commercials, We get Sex Tapes.
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