LeBron James Starring In Light-Hearted Kia Motors Ad To Promote New Luxury Sedan

Kia on Friday night will begin airing a new ad campaign for its K900 luxury sedan that addresses -- "in a lighthearted way -- the skepticism among some consumers" that Cavaliers F LeBron James actually drives a Kia, according to Suzanne Vranica of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. Since Kia signed James to a four-year deal in '14, "plenty of people have poked fun at the partnership on social media." There have been "roughly 30,000 tweets over the past year that mentioned" both James and Kia, according to social media analytics firm Networked Insights. Networked Insights VP/Strategic Insights Rick Miller said that roughly 30% of the comments "indicate that consumers were doubtful that the relationship was genuine." Kia Exec VP & COO Michael Sprague said, "We want to show people he actually does drive the car." The ads "address naysayers head on" by showing James "responding, in a tongue-in-cheek way, to sarcastic tweets that have been posted on social media." One commercial shows James "reading tweets from his phone." He reads one of the tweets aloud: “I’ll bet anyone ten million dollars that LeBron doesn’t roll up to the games in a Kia.” James then "addresses the tweeter, saying he does drive his K900 to get around and occasionally uses it to get to games." Kia said that it "went through thousands of tweets to select three to feature in its new campaign and also sought permission from consumers to use the tweets in its ads" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 12/4).