Dribble and shoot for the stars with new Nike China LeBron James ad

In February this year, Fox News host Laura Ingraham used her show “The Ingraham Angle” to criticise NBA player LeBron James for talking politics, serving him with her tagline “Shut up and dribble”.

'Shut up and dribble' — Fox News's Laura Ingraham to LeBron and Kevin Durant after their criticism of President Trump pic.twitter.com/0BlokQDIIl

— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) February 16, 2018

James, whose net worth is estimated at US$450 million, took the line and turned it into the title of a new documentary series that he has produced with Showtime about basketball’s historic links with political activism, which aired this month. 

Now James and Nike, who signed a lifetime deal together in 2015 that was thought to be the first contract of its kind in the brand’s history, have released their latest campaign in China also riffing on Ingraham’s comment with a series of OOH ads called ‘DRIBBLE &_____’. The ads were produced by Wieden+Kennedy Shanghai. 

The ads appear in Shanghai, Beijing, Nanjing, Chengdu, Harbin, Tianjin, Hangzhou, Chongqing and Suzhou, and the slogan is also being marketed on shirts, which can be personalised by filling in the blank as the wearer likes.