Reebok angers anti-gun lobby with 50 Cent ads

by Mark Sweney and Gemma Charles, Marketing 15-Mar-05, 08:30

LONDON - Reebok has been accused of glorifying gun culture in its latest ads, which are backed by the sportswear brand's biggest ever UK adspend.

The TV ads show rapper 50 Cent counting to nine in reference to the fact that he has been shot nine times and survived. The press campaign shows him alongside police fingerprint records.

The images have been condemned by anti-gun charity The Disarm Trust. Its chairman Bill Brown attacked the ads as "irresponsible and despicable", and described them as "preying on young impressionable black males".

The £12m integrated campaign launches in the UK this week with TV ads by New York agency mcgarrybowen. Using the line "I am what I am", it features celebrities such as 50 Cent and Jay-Z, as well as Dame Kelly Holmes, in her first work since signing with Reebok late last year.

A Reebok spokeswoman denied the company's campaign was condoning guns or crime, saying: "Reebok does not condone every action, choice or view expressed by the athletes and entertainers who wear our products."

She added that "edgy" ads would only run during TV shows and in magazines described as "adult-oriented".

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