Foot Locker yesterday unveiled its newest national advertising spot to promote its "Approved" sneakers and gear this holiday season. The commercial celebrates Foot Locker's annual "Week of Greatness" event. The spot opens with Cavaliers G Kyrie Irving, then shows a number of iconic athletes and sports personalities revisiting their most notorious moments and making things right. Boxing HOFer Mike Tyson makes up with former opponent Evander Holyfield, Basketball HOFer Dennis Rodman buys a one-way ticket to North Korea, former NFLer Brett Favre finally realizes when to bow out, and TNT NBA broadcaster Craig Sager burns his trademark tacky suits (
Foot Locker). In Milwaukee, David Paulsen wrote Favre, who had "an infamous aversion to retirement, is seen in a diner pushing away the last piece of a pie." The perhaps "funnier, and certainly more startling, moment" comes when Tyson apologizes to Holyfield "for biting his ear off ... then offers him the ear." Paulsen: "You've got to see it to believe it" (
JSONLINE.com, 11/19). YAHOO SPORTS' Eric Freeman noted Sager has "poked fun at his clothes before," but Rodman is "a different story." While Rodman has "proven willing to do anything for a little publicity," he has appeared to "take his involvement in North Korean diplomacy quite seriously." In "poking fun at the unpopularity of his friendship with the Supreme Leader, Rodman seems to be saying that the one thing that has earned him some measure of serious intellectual consideration in the past decade really isn't that important" (
SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 11/19).
