In a possible counter-attack to the Nets' plea for attention across the street from Madison Square Garden back during the LeBron showdown, the Knicks recently unveiled a huge billboard on Flatbush and Seventh Avenues in Brooklyn. Which is just up the street from the under-construction Atlantic Yards, where the Nets hope to play some day.
Could this be the first step in a ploy to "reignite the deeply passionate relationship" between NYC and its Knicks? If so, it doesn't seem to be working. The Brooklyn Paper caught up with local resident Chris Tucker, who says that installing the billboard so close to the Nets' new arena is "like putting a mosque near Ground Zero." Nets CEO Brett Yormark, however, is just "glad to see [the Knicks] know where Brooklyn is. Clearly, they know what's coming.
According to The New York Times, no fewer than five ad agencies have been brought in recently to help "reconnect the team and the city" through ads like the one above as well as social networking. The Knicks have already spent over $230,000 on advertising in the first six months of this year (as compared to $18,200 in the same period last year), but if they think that 39,002 Twitter followers will help their team win games, they've got another thing coming.
