adidas yesterday released its newest TV spot featuring Redskins first-round draft pick QB Robert Griffin III. The spot, which promotes the brand’s adiZero 5 line, elicited several reactions on Twitter. Fox Sports’ Erin Andrews wrote, “How cool is @RGIII's new commercial? Can we get the season going now?” South Florida Sun-Sentinel writer Dieter Kurtenbach wrote, "This is going to sell some shoes." The official Bleacher Report feed tweeted, "RGIII's new adidas commercial is legit." AFL Georgia Force Dir of Player Personnel Chris Steuber wrote, "#Adidas decided to showcase #RG3 as a running QB in his new commercial. Mike Vick experience without roller coaster." DC-area sports blog Mr. Irrelevant wrote, @RGIII's new adidas commercial is very Last Boy Scout-y (that's a compliment)" (THE DAILY).
LESSON LEARNED: AD AGE’s Rupal Parekh wrote of the heightened criticism over Ralph Lauren manufacturing Team USA uniforms in China, "There is a lesson here that brands must learn to be more mindful of their decisions, and how to explain them, in the face of potential backlash.” Brands that “tout themselves as American-made or pride themselves on their American craftmanship must be especially vigilant about making sure their claims are true” (ADAGE.com, 7/16). In Boston, John Powers writes, "What's puzzling about the Congressionally-stoked uproar about American athletes wearing Chinese-made parade uniforms is that the USOC didn’t make domestic production a condition of Ralph Lauren getting the contract, which took effect in 2008 and runs through the 2020 Games.” If the company “will make the 2014 winter apparel here, as it has promised to do, there’s no reason why it couldn’t have been done this time.” Parekh: “Not that homemade duds are a US Olympic tradition.” Canadian firm Roots “was the outfitter for 2002, when the Games were held in Salt Lake” (BOSTON GLOBE, 7/17).
