This dunderheaded spot for the Cleveland Cavaliers shows a fun scenario of whimsical cartoon violence. Or, I think it was supposed to be fun, but the cartoon violence became domestic violence, with the woman being thrown across the room for wearing a Chicago Bulls t-shirt by her Cleveland Cavaliers-loving husband or boyfriend. I suppose it’s intended to be “All In” good fun. (
I don’t know how, with all the domestic violence sports stories lately, this didn’t raise some red flags with someone somewhere in the approvals process. I guess they all must really hate the Chicago Bulls at that ad agency. (Hmm, must be a local agency.) And the thing that is actually funny about this is that it would have been so easy for them to fix and save this spot by simply having the man begin to put the woman into the lift position, and he sees her shirt while she’s over his head, and he stops and puts her back down to the side she came from, points at her shirt, and says: “The Bulls? I’m not dancing with a Bulls fan.” Then it would have sent the same message, only without the spousal abuse.
But the tag is what puts this ad even farther over the edge: we see the two sitting down to watch the game, and the woman is now wearing the Cavaliers “All In” shirt too, and she’s got a bag of ice on her battered head. Nice touch. To really drive it home, I’m surprised they didn’t have another couple arrive to watch the game with them, and one of them asks her what happened to her head, and she says: “Oh, I just walked into a door.”
Oh, and “All In” has been the Adidas slogan for a few years recently; did this ad pilfer that slogan? I guess they put in the shocking domestic violence scenario so we’d be too distracted to notice they swiped the slogan from Adidas. (They could have just thought up another slogan, but I guess that would be quitting.)
Here’s a news story that includes the abusive advert:
