Did anyone really think that Lebron James’ marketing appeal would suffer because of his controversial exit from Cleveland, which former NBA star turned analyst Charles Barkley called a punk move? Nah, Nike has too much invested in James to let that happen. James’ new Nike commercial, “Rise,” will air on TV today, though it was released on the web Monday and already had 214,000 views as of this morning. Nike says:

This isn’t about what LeBron James has done, or hasn’t done. This is about the difference between the expectations others may have of him versus the expectations he has of himself. What should he do? The answer is a question.

There’s even a funny jab at Barkley’s girth and his famous “I am not a role model” commercial from 1993, which ironically was  one of Nike’s first attempts at rehabilitating the image of one of its star pitchmen.

While James’ new ad is getting a nice reception, not everyone is a fan. Christopher John Farley in the WSJ’s Speakeasy blog says the piece would have never gotten Don Draper’s approval:

So now James has this Nike ad in which he keeps repeating “What should I do?” The line is a mocking one,  because he doesn’t really want an answer to the question. The question is meant to illustrate the ridiculousness of even asking it–James is saying that he should make his own life decisions.

Of course, he’s saying all this in a commercial in which, presumably, his every line was vetted  by Nike executives, Wieden + Kennedy and 55 other guys in suits.

For anyone who gets a little annoyed when the CNN anchors pimp their Twitter feeds, this video from the Dallas Fox affiliate is for you.

KDFW’s parody video does a good job of pointing out that TV news’ eagerness to be hip to social media can make it look just plain silly.

There’s an irony there. TV news was much quicker on the uptake than its newspaper counterparts when it came to making the transition into the Internet age. TV’s 24-hour news cycle, its willingness to innovate, the journalist cum celebrity and the superficiality of coverage, were made-to-order for the Web. Newspapers delivering yesterday’s news? Not so much.

But while TV news websites were much better early on than newspaper sites, they’re still a little clumsy at incorporating social media into their live broadcasts.

Social media is one thing that doesn’t translate well to live TV. If I’m watching the evening news on my television, I could care less what people on Twitter are saying about the day’s top story.

The lesson for broadcasters is simple: People don’t use their TV to interact to interact socially, and until that changes trying engage viewers through social media is going to be awkward, at best.