LeBron James, one of the biggest sports celebrities in the world, a man who is worth many hundreds of millions of dollars, could own pretty much anything he wants. And actually, he does: he has a television that appears to be larger than most arena jumbotrons, for instance. So when Kia pays him to tell the world that he loves his Kia K900 — a sensible family sedan — it's difficult to believe that he actually uses a Kia to do much of anything. (This is a superstar who drove a Hummer H2 as a high schooler, after all.)
And Kia understands, because it's leaning hard into that skepticism with a new ad campaign where LeBron responds to doubting tweets, saying, "actually, I do use my Kia K900 to get around."
In fairness, the K900 seems to be a fine car — it's just that LeBron, who even Kia describes in its press release as an "avid car collector," could drive anything. A Bentley Mulsanne or a Rolls-Royce Phantom. A Bugatti. A fleet of five Bugattis with Bentleys in the front and back. A LaFerrari. Sure, there's an amount of money that will get a paid spokesperson to swear they use a particular product, it's just that... well, it's probably not true. (See the countless iPhone tweet fails over the years, for starters.)
So now that Kia is doubling down on LeBron's Kia love with this new series of ads, the dude better drive a Kia. I'm serious. If you see him driving one, send pictures to our tips line.
C'mon, LeBron. You know you'd rather be driving this:
Or this:
Or this:
Or this:
Prove me wrong.