too bad they're not sponsored by a battery acid company
if there's an eventual limit to the popularity of NASCAR (and if you ask me, they've gotta be trading paint with that limit already), it's going to be brought on by ridiculous crap like this:
LONG POND, Pennsylvania (Sports Network) - Jimmie Johnson Tuesday was fined $10,000 for covering a bottle of a sports drink made by a NASCAR sponsor due to the fact that he has a contract with a rival company.
After Johnson climbed out of his car following Sunday's race win at Pocono Raceway, he put a sign in front of the PowerAde bottle that NASCAR officials placed on top of his car.
PowerAde is an official sponsor of NASCAR and is made by Coca-Cola, but Johnson has a sponsorship with rival company Pepsi.
"It ended up being an expensive move on my part," Johnson said. "The bottom line is I'm just trying to defend my options as a driver."
Johnson, like other Pepsi or Gatorade-sponsored drivers, has been knocking the bottle off his car when he got to Victory Lane. However, two weeks ago, NASCAR president Mike Helton told drivers they could no longer do that.
Johnson tried to get around it by taking a sign that said Lowe's -- the primary sponsor of his car -- and placing it in front of the bottle. NASCAR, though, said Johnson was not "following the directive of a NASCAR official" and called the act "detrimental to stock car racing."
i don't know which is worse, the driver taking his sponsors so seriously as to actually whack a competitors product to the ground or the overseers who go so far as to place actual products on the winning cars in the first place. every race is so saturated with advertising, i don't know how they expect any of it to get through to people anyway.
Comments
What are you talking about? That advertising is my first stop for guidance in the overwhelming world of products out there. I personally thank NASCAR and the drivers for their continual assistance in recommeding life changing restaurants and laundry detergents. Without them, I never would have discovered the wonders of Tide or the delicious hot wings at Hooters.
Posted by: crispin | August 3, 2004 03:59 PM
NASCAR is like MLB before Curt Flood: The athletes (or whatever you want to call drivers) are basically powerless. The France family (and now Mike Helton, a lifelong France lackey) rules it with an iron fist, and if a driver doesn't like it, he can go drive in front of 15,000 fans at an IRL race instead of 100,000-plus at Daytona.
And Apes, where's your reaction to No-more's departure from the Sox? I thought for sure there'd be some kind of obit by now.
Posted by: Matt | August 3, 2004 07:56 PM
I think it's brilliant. The kindergarden fighting over sponsorship is a little silly, but the actual placement of advertising is excellent for the sponsor as well as the fans.
Compare prices to NASCAR events vs. MLB: a Friday night Tigers baseball game most expensive seat costs $60; the NASCAR Night of Champions (which sounds very exciting if you care about NASCAR) is $15.
Baseball already has ads, maybe they aren't as obvious as NASCAR, but I don't see it reducing anyone's cost - except maybe the team owner.
Posted by: Michelle | August 4, 2004 09:04 AM
my reaction the whole Nomar thing has been pretty blase. i think it helps the team and it hurts it. i had gotten to the point with him where i barely cared anymore and right now, the team is completely uninspiring to me. i do like Orlando Cabrera, though.
Posted by: jamie | August 4, 2004 11:10 AM
"every race is so saturated with advertising, i don't know how they expect any of it to get through to people anyway."
Ahh, but they do. Other sports leagues are doing this because NASCAR has been phenomenally successful at using ad placement. And maybe because the ads have been prominent at NASCAR events for so long, not only do the fans not mind them (unlike baseball, where fans have been raised to think of ballparks as shrines, and thus naturally revolt when Spiderman appears on bases), studies have shown they're remarkably brand-loyal. Fans of drivers of GM cars buy GM cars, use the same brand of car parts or tools, etc.
Posted by: David | August 8, 2004 06:01 PM