During Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Toronto Raptors, fans witnessed LeBron James pretend to take a sip of beer. In case you were wondering, the beer was a Great Lakes Brewing Company Dortmund Gold — the company’s flagship beer.
Great Lakes Brewing Company was Ohio’s first craft brewery (1988) and is a well-known name throughout the state and beyond. In fact, Great Lakes beer is served at Quicken Loans Arena and Progressive Field. Jim Ganzer, director of media strategy at The Adcom Group in Cleveland, tells Marc Bona of cleveland.com that Great Lakes stands to gain from James’ spontaneous promotional boost.
“They really walked into a gold mine,” Ganzer said. “Ultimately if it translates to sales you have to wait and see. With time and attention, social media does a really good job – this is definitely one of those situations – you caught LeBron not actively promoting a brand. This is going to catch fire in the shareability of the content – people sharing it, on social media, talking about it.”
On Tuesday, Great Lakes tweeted a cardboard cutout of James’ Dortmunder moment and announced discounts on beers at local bars. The tweet has since been deleted, but one of James holding the beer remains. We’ve included a screenshot of the tweet in case it doesn’t upload.
https://twitter.com/GLBC_Cleveland/status/859221688004825089
Everything sounds good, right? Well, in the immortal words of Lee Corso: “Not so fast…”
Earlier today, cleveland.com reported that James and his associates are upset with Great Lakes Brewing for using his likeness to promote Dortmunder Gold. So upset, in fact, that they would consider legal action.
While it’s true that Great Lakes crafts a fine brew, they are also the same company that created “Quitness” when James left Cleveland for Miami, which they decribed as “a dry hopped India pale ale that leaves a bitter aftertaste, perfectly describing the mood of Cleveland sports fans these days.” As we all know, James is not of the forgetful sort.
“This is about the last thing I’m trying to worry about right now,” James told Joe Vardon of cleveland.com. “My agent and my legal team will take care of it, but yeah I know (Great Lakes) is trying to benefit off of me. And I heard they were the same company that made all those ‘Quitness’ beers, and now they’re trying to benefit off me this way? Yeah, it’s pretty funny.”
While it was a funny moment, James and his business associates have a right to be upset. One source close to The King said that an advertising promotion like that would cost more than $2 million.
