Current Nike ad campaign sparks ’90s sneaker character nostalgia

June 8, 2009 —

Nike’s Kobe-LeBron puppet ad campaign that hit airwaves shortly before LeBron was gloriously bounced from the NBA playoffs got me thinking about simpler times. Back then, it didn’t take a flashy million-dollar campaign to get you interested in buying a pair of shoes. All it took was a guy dressed up like an old woman.

I’m talking, of course, about Grandmama: former NBA star Larry Johnson’s alter ego, cleverly used to pitch his Converse React shoes in the early 1990s.

That’s right. Before Tyler Perry became a millionaire dressing up like a woman, Larry Johnson had unsuspecting children, such as myself, buying the Converse React because of the all-too-influential Grandmama ad campaign.

I’m not sure what it says about me that an ad featuring a guy dressed up like an old woman dunking a basketball is what convinced me to finagle my mom into buying me a pair of the shoes that said old woman was wearing in the commercial.

I am sure, however, that the shoes did little for my basketball game. It was a humbling lesson that no pair of shoes can mask the athletic shortcomings of a chubby kid of average height.

As for Grandmama, the campaign did its job. It moved a boatload of pretty ugly shoes and gave us an iconic figure to reminisce about more than 15 years later.

He also helped Steve Urkel win a two-on-two basketball tournament. When’s the last time a current NBA star showed up to help a hapless nerd win a street basketball tournament?

Not to be outdone, Nike burned the midnight oil compiling stacks of market research trying to figure out what could possibly be even more effective than a man in drag.

By 1996, they’d found the answer: puppets.

To help market former NBA star Anfernee Hardaway’s Air Penny shoe collection, Nike paired the reserved Hardaway with Lil’ Penny, a puppet voiced by the anything-but-reserved Chris Rock.

Together, the pair starred in several commercials, where the actual shoes took a backseat to Lil’ Penny’s jabbering, whether at a pick-up basketball game or on the couch, telling us why Ken Griffey Jr. was going to be the next president of the United States. Unfortunately, Lil’ Penny’s time in the limelight was brief, as Hardaway suffered a major knee injury during the 1997-1998 season — a precursor to the string of related injuries that eventually cut this career short.

As it turns out, there isn’t much demand for shoes endorsed by a guy who can no longer jump any higher than me in those Converse Reacts. Though both Grandmama and Lil’ Penny graced our televisions for a short time, they are more proof why the current NBA just doesn’t stack up against the NBA when there was a chance Lil’ Penny would be sitting courtside.