Entry 6: NBA Slam Dunk Contest

On Friday, I was talking to Sebastian about Blake Griffin after Jonathan presented the 2013 KIA commercial.  We were talking about Blake Griffin's "amazing" dunk back in 2011 when he jumped over a car and made the dunk.  No one has ever done a dunk like that before so Blake Griffin was the big talk for awhile after the contest had ended.  After talking to Sebastian about Blake Griffin's dunk I went home to watch the dunk again and realized there was so much advertising during the competition.  Sprite was a major advertisement throughout the slam dunk competition, literally where ever the camera went there was a sign for Sprite. Check out Blake Griffin's dunk:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=araiOM-9jzQ

I will give the guy props for making that dunk in one try,but I do not think it was a great dunk.  Blake Griffin jumped over the hood of the car, not even the roof which is the highest part of the car.  I am not trying to be a hater or anything, I just believe that the dunk would have bee more amazing if he jumped over the roof of the KIA.  The car company actually got some publicity with this NBA dunk because for at least 5 straight seconds the camera just showed the car sitting on the court.  Also, out of all the cars that Blake Griffin could use to jump over he decided to go with a KIA car.  This does make sense though because he gas done KIA commercials in the past so its a given that he uses this company car. 

Sprite sponsored the NBA dunk competition so they were advertising their drink everywhere possible.  They used product placement during this event, the Sprite name was everywhere on the court.  I saw the name over twenty times in that one minute clip on Blake Griffin's dunk.  The Sprite name was on the KIA car, on the judges table, the judge's signs they held up, on the court, even on the light up banners around the court.  Everywhere you look their is a Sprite symbol, plus there was no one in the stadium that you could see drink any other soda except Sprite.  The dunk competition is even called "The Sprite Slam Dunk Contest." Sprite really paid a lot of money to have their name plastered all over the stadium and promote their drink.  At 1:20 of the video the camera angle is perfect it shows the KIA car Witt the Sprite name on it, plus in the background Blake Griffin is dunking.