To optimally promote their upcoming game Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, publisher Activision reportedly paid a well-known basketball player from the USA. Unfortunately, the guy had no idea what he was supposed to do. The result was accordingly embarrassing and silly.
Sponsorship is actually nothing special: A company or its agency approaches a celebrity and offers them money to present and promote their products. Ideally, this should be clearly marked so that everything is correct. But in the case of the rising basketball star DeAndre Ayton, it seems that it backfired!
“Just do what it says in the briefing”
Who is DeAndre Ayton? Behind this name is a young, aspiring basketball professional from the USA. He is only 19 years old and played for the University of Arizona Wildcats. Experts see him as the next David Robinson, an outstanding center player. Tonight, the big NBA Draft takes place, and Ayton is considered the favorite for the first pick, destined to become the next NBA superstar.
The 2.16m tall young man is well-known, and the opportunity was ripe. Therefore, it was likely seen as a good opportunity to promote the upcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 with him.
Take a photo and send a tweet: Ayton’s task was simple. He stands in front of a Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 logo, takes a photo, and sends it via Twitter. Further, the briefing apparently stated: “All he has to do is tag #BlackOps4 and #CallOfDutyPartner, the rest he can say in his own words.”
What could go wrong? Apparently, quite a lot, since Ayton (or whoever ultimately wrote the tweet) simply did not understand the instructions from the briefing. Instead of writing his own tweet and just adding the hashtags, he copied the briefing word for word under the picture and sent it out!
Rookie tweet deleted
Oops, how embarrassing: By the time the mishap was noticed, it was of course already too late, and Ayton’s blunder was shared countless times online. It didn’t help that shortly afterward, a new tweet was sent out, where the instructions were correctly implemented.
In the new version, Ayton is simply happy that he got to have a great day with the Black Ops 4 crew. Whether he got in trouble with Activision or his management for the clumsy action is not known.
