Lebron's Cramps: Gatorade vs. Powerade
Gatorade managed to make a mess of its non-sponsorship of Lebron James in the aftermath of Lebron James falling victim to cramps in the fourth quarter of Game 1 of the NBA Finals. When the air conditioning broke at AT&T Center in San Antonio, the temperature on the court rose to 90 degrees. Lebron James was forced to the sidelines by vicious cramps for the last seven minutes of the game, and had to watch helplessly as the Spurs expanded their lead from 2 points to a 15 point final victory.
Gatorade demonstrated the danger of real-time advertising when it attempted to deflect blame towards Powerade (Lebron's sponsor) during the cramping episode. Gatorade violated one of the cardinal rules of twitter - Do Not Feed The Trolls - when it decided to respond to a tweet from @Lazybumdrew asking "WHERE WERE YOU WHEN LEBRON NEEDED YOU???? @Gatorade" Gatorade responded, "We were waiting on the sidelines, but he prefers to drink something else." When a new tweet asked whether Gatorade would have prevented Lebron from cramping, Gatorade threw another shot at Powerade, "hydration definitely would have helped." In another tweet, Gatorade wrote, "The person cramping wasn't our client. Our athletes can take the heat."
Gatorade was forced to retract all of these tweets when it was revealed that Lebron James was drinking Gatorade (not Powerade) during the game. Gatorade has the exclusive contract with the NBA to provide courtside drinks, so Lebron (like all NBA players) had no choice but to drink it. Lebron gets his Gatorade from bottles and cups without an advertising label. You would think that Gatorade's marketing department would have known these facts before firing shots at Lebron during the most high-profile failure of its product.
So far, Powerade has remained quiet in this fight. I would not be surprised if they later sued Gatorade for trade libel. Here are some guidelines that Gatorade should consider for the future:
You cannot elevate your brand by standing on the shoulders of a troll's ALL CAPS tweet.
Know your facts before your tweet.
You cannot go wrong by keeping quiet until the end of the game.