Marketing experts would tell you that LeBron James is a pretty strong endorser. If you put LeBron’s name on something, people are going to buy it. The problem is you have to be willing to spend millions of dollars for the rights to attach King James to your product. Unless your product is illegal to begin with, in which case it really doesn’t matter.
According to the Philadelphia Daily News, Upper Darby police arrested a heroin dealer on Thursday who was found to be in possession of 140 packets of heroin. The packets were all labeled “LeBron James” and had an image of a basketball player dunking a ball on them.
“I don’t think LeBron James would be too happy with this drug-dealer dude using his name on these street bags,” Upper Darby Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood said.
Believe it or not, this is not the first time someone has named their heroin after King James. Chitwood pointed out that stamping bags with some sort of name is common for drug dealers, but it’s usually a more generic name or word. An undercover police officer made the arrest from 19-year-old Marlon Guess, who unsuccessfully tried to outrun police after they bought 140 bags of the LeBron off of him for $750.
We have heard of strands of marijuana being named after athletes like this one and this one, and those tend to create legal issues regarding branding. In the case of the 140 bags of heroin, my guess is the fact that the dealer used LeBron’s name without permission will be the least of his problems.
H/T SLAM Online
Photo credit: Upper Darby Police Department
