It’s that time of year. Stars across the league are making their case for why they should be in the NBA All-Star Game and are appealing to their fans for votes. Social teams are helping out with marketing campaigns, social media activity, and of course video.
The Trail Blazers recently made a video case for guard Damian Lillard to return to the All-Star Game. They want to get him the votes necessary to start in the game and with everybody campaigning it can be difficult to stand out.
So, the Blazers went a route that certainly is going to get attention. They’re going with old internet videos, and by old, I mean actually old. The references the Blazers use in their Lillard campaign are easily over 10 years old, but they are definitely classics.
https://twitter.com/trailblazers/status/1083393026561662976
The opening to this is Lillard on a unicycle playing flaming bagpipes. A reference to a Portland resident that likes to take part in the “Keep Portland weird” campaigns. So this at least has significance to Portland in some way and is kind of goofy. The real blast from the past comes from C.J. McCollum. The Blazers secondary star dances on stage the same way Napoleon Dynamite did in the 2004 cult classic “Napoleon Dynamite.” He’s even wearing a “Vote for Damian” shirt in the same style as the “Vote for Pedro” shirts in the movie.
It’s a goofy video and McCollum’s dance routine is pretty spot on, but it is a bit bizarre that people are still making references to “Napoleon Dynamite” in 2019. That said, memes never die and while there’s probably a generation of voters too young to remember that movie, if it gets Lillard votes then mission accomplished.
