The new Nike viral campaign featuring Charlie Murphy as basketball legend Leroy Smith whose claim to fame is beating out Michael Jordan for a spot on the varsity basketball team might be one of Nike’s best ads of all time. Leroy Smith is the man who motivated Jordan to greatness and now he’s here to motivate all of us. In a role Charlie Murphy was born to play, he kills it as a basketball legend still living his glory days from the late ’80s and ’90s with the retro windbreaker and Hammer pants. His brand new basketball DVD series, Get Your Basketball On, claims to teach you the skills to dominate opponents like Jordan did and learn Leroy Smith’s 3 Pillars of Success- Motivize, Pulverize, and Realize. How can you go wrong with a word like Motivize?
As a huge MJ fan I love the shot of Jordan and Smith in the high school basketball picture, where Jordan gets cut out and Smith gets a one up over him. The drills he uses such as The Mind Maze, Dragon Attack Drill, Shuffle & Sweat, Giant Target Drill and The Blind Mantis Drill all resemble something out of a classic ’80s karate movie featuring Jean-Claude Van Damme with all its cheesy explosions and neon lights. I’m pretty sure all the special effects in the ad are taken directly out of the classic video game NBA JAM…boom shaka laka! Throughout the ad, Leroy Smith actually appears in karate gear as well as jamming out on a guitar, which is just awesome. Just when you thought this ad couldn’t get funnier, Leroy Smith throws in his motivational cookbook called Get Your Cooking On. Whatever Nike employee created this campaign is brilliant, the best line of the commercial comes at the end when Leroy Smith for some reason has a giant flame thrower and is burning a rack of basketballs and says “That’s what I call a hot shot.” It is so ridiculous but so right at the same time, pretty much like the entire ’80s decade. To see the entire site for Get Your Basketball On check out http://www.getyourbasketballon.com/home/ which is sure to give you a good laugh, check out the video game which is exactly like NBA JAM but takes place in an dojo.
Personally, I can’t get enough of Murphy, every time he is on the screen is sure to be hysterical. Before these ads, he was known for his role in The Chappelle Show playing himself. His skits with Rick James and Prince were instant classics and were probably the most quoted lines on college campuses a few years ago. What has been a career overshadowed by his brother Eddie’s fame, Charlie has been in the mainstream in the past few years and is well deserving of this. This Campus Socialite is glad to see Murphy back on the scene and as funny as ever. Just in case you forgot how amazing the skits from Chappelle were check out one of my favorites:
