LeBron in Grayscale Reads Like Makings of a Legend

Alongside agency Wieden + Kennedy, Nike put together this two-part print campaign featuring LeBron James. Part I is at left; Part II is right here.

Ahh. Nike is never too pushy. In this spread you've got all the force and drama of a Jay-Z song, except the neighbors won't complain.

If the World Has to Be Divvied, It Might As Well Be for a Sport

Nike and Major League Baseball play on the United Colors of Benetton to give us the United Countries of Baseball, a world segmented by team allegiances instead of by states or countries.

The idea is to map the "borders of fan loyalty." Each baseball-playing country has its own map, alongside posters with player nicknames specific to each territory.

The campaign was orchestrated by Cole & Weber United.

We actually didn't think baseball had a rabid fan base any longer. Post-steroids scandal, it looks like basketball is taking the whole "American Dream" torch. See recent promotions for Dwyane Wade and Monta Ellis.

Dwyane Wade Love Letter Becomes Promotional Vehicle for Converse

Aww. Miami Heat player Dwyane Wade's letter to basketball reads like an earnest, and early, version of Common's "I Used to Love Her," a love letter to hip-hop.

But unlike hip-hop, the game doesn't start turning tricks in adulthood.

The letter is the inspiration for a Converse promotion by Anomaly. The spot, "From Robbins, Illinois," started airing on October 28th. Around that time, the Wade 3 signature basketball shoe was also released.

See the spot and behind-the-scenes footage here. The :60 piece does a good job of capturing a moment that apparently meant a lot to him.

Also, Wade is really into triangles.

Some Ads Just Don't Age Well. We Blame the Music

We realize how old this DHL ad is, but we're going to review it anyway because it saddens us that over the past few years we have paid DHL's efforts no mind whatsoever, and now it does next to nothing ad-wise. (Unless you count this, but we sure don't.)

Point of fact: If every DHL delivery actually did come with a passel of ass-shaking Miami Dolphins cheerleaders, the First World may actually use the service. It could be like a sassy singing telegram.

Second point: Disclosure is important. But sometimes, it can be sad. (See comments section.)

One more: Any ad that tries making serious use of an MC Hammer track is just begging to be associated with 1990. And not too much happened there. (Unless you count Manuel Noriega's surrender and the first McD's to open in Moscow, but we sure don't.)

Budweiser Turns NFL Fans into Stars by Proximity

This is the type of campaign that's always fun to talk about. To give back to the fans and kick off football season in Canada, NFL has teamed up with Budweiser to bring passionate personalities closer to the sport they love.

Ever wish you could be a cheerleader bodyguard for the Dallas Cowboys, or a leap guard for the Packers? Here's to hoping you win more than a shirt.

Toronto's Downtown Partners put together the Superfans campaign to ensure just that. One of the TV spots for the effort features Ed Anzalone, a big Jets fan, berating an oblivious neighbor for allegedly talking down about his team of choice.

It and two other Superfan ads now appear during NFL broadcasts in Canada.

Sprint Leaps Onto the Goodship Manning, Just in Time for Football Season

We were beginning to think there was no longer any such thing as sites that take two minutes to load and count to or from 100 the whole time.

But Manning's Mind, a new promotion for Sprint by Goodby, defeats that logic.

Post-load, the site is actually not bad. It just isn't anything special. Take Peyton Manning on in a trivia-style game where each point won brings you closer to a touchdown.

It appears Peyton Manning is one of the only sports celebrity sponsors who's actually used for what he has to say. We don't know what that means, but it's interesting.

Mastercard's Peyton Manning Pep Talks More Worthless than Priceless

Talk about deception. Here's a campaign that looked like something it wasn't.

Mastercard's Priceless Pep Talks with Peyton Manning gives you two text-entry boxes: a place for your name, and a place to enter something you're bummed about.

But if your name isn't already in a pre-set database, you officially do not exist. And the second box seems to be stuck on one setting: "I drive a minivan."

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Hard-Ass Sport, Longtime Legends, Hip-Hop Luminaries Join in Testosterone-Topia

Video game publisher 2K Sports has pulled digital firm EVB into its ranks to build a lifestyle marketing campaign called Football Resurrected.

A big plug for All-Pro Football 2K8, the virtual game boasts 300 pigskin "legends" including Jerry Rice and Barry Sanders, as well as a few familiar faces of underground hip-hop, including Hieroglyphics, Jurassic 5, Pep Love and even Rakim.

The site is pretty cool and the raps, which revolve entirely around "the resurrection of 2K Sports," are damn sound. It's all really clever and whatnot.

If the musical icons from our beat-banging youth aren't going to rap about their shoes or how cool they are or how lame haters can be or how love pounds you into submission, they might as well be rapping about football.

We're all just trying to get paid at the end of the day, right? Right.

Gorbachev Lets Loose (or Not) for Louis

When politics and pop culture meet, it's always a little fun to watch the synergy. Adverlab points us to this spot for Louis Vuitton, which slid from the Lolita-esque Scarlett Johanssen series to a celebrity survey that includes Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet Union's first (and last) president.

The New York Times observes that Gorbachev "appears the last comfortable [...] holding on to a door handle, as if the bag contained polonium 210."

Upon examining Gorbachev's expression, and then the bag, we've concluded there's definitely not a bowling ball in it. (Although it may well be perestroika.)

In-Game Ads Get the Rich Media Treatment (Thank You, Microsoft)

Microsoft and EA have just joined forces to create a dynamic ad platform for sports games on the Xbox 360 console and PCs. This means that next time you strap up to play Madden, the sponsorship banners and other ads you see will change.

In a way, this is kind of an improvement on reality. Can you imagine playing your favorite sport -- in the middle of Times Square? It's a dream for the overstimulated, possibly LSD-addled mind that hoped to become Joe Montana but never got past JV.

Madden 08, NASCAR 08, NHL 08, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 08, and Skate will feature the dynamic ads at outset. Non-Xbox and non-PC variations will go on wearing the static versions.

Ars Technica is bummed because this new stream of income doesn't mean a less expensive purchase for gamers. Yeah, sometimes it sucks to be on the receiving end.