John Costacos Interview
How come the Michael Jordan poster looks different than the posters that came before it ?
We had an interesting relationship with Nike . There was a guy named Harry Johnson who called me about doing their posters . Before we got the deal done , he got transferred to Korea . Peter Moore had left and they needed someone to do their posters , and our stuff was good and popular . After Harry left , the next guy decided they would do it themselves and we essentially became competitors , but we built a relationship with them . They would send us product because if we shot a Nike guy , we would put their stuff in the posters . It was free advertising for them .
When it came to the Michael Jordan thing , we had a three poster deal and they nixed it . We were going to shoot all three posters in the building after practice , with a white seamless backdrop . Nike had a lot to say about what Jordan did and didn ’ t do , but we were friendly with those guys .
We added the player rights to our NBA license and it changed things for the better in a lot of ways , especially with the NBA , because we didn ’ t have to do individual contracts with the players anymore . It was one contract with the league , and the player rights came with that . In a way , Nike did us a favor because we sold 1.2 million copies of that Michael Jordan poster . Unfortunately , Michael didn ’ t get a penny . It went to the Player ’ s Association .
© Costacos Brothers
© Costacos Brothers
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