I am not a Nascar fan.
I have nothing against the sport or the people, I just can't seem to get excited about it. That being said I did happen to catch a few minutes of the big race this weekend and saw something that was puzzling.
It was the #27 car.
We all know about the cars and how they are moving billboards for major brands looking to cement permanent relationships with the Nascar faithful....and I like that. There is nothing wrong with brash commercialism but I was still troubled by the sponsor of the #27 car.
Who was is you ask?
UNICEF.
This kinda puzzled/bothered me because as a Charity (one that I collected many pennies for during my many Halloween outings as a child) I found it odd that they would spend the approx. $20 Million Dollars it takes to be a title sponsor when that money could go to better places.
Even if they got a Charity discount (does that exist in Nascar Sponsorship deals?) they would still be in the hook for a big chunk of the fee.
Now I understand this is advertising and the goal is to get many eyeballs on the name and the url but I wonder if this will end up being effective for them. I know I was turned off by it and even if I am blogging about it and giving them exposure it may not be the type of exposure they were hoping for.
*and if anyone knows if this was a freebie or something please feel free to chime in and call me stupid but I read every press release and couldn't find any mention of that. The PR does mention that they hope the race will move people to donate in record numbers.
-saul
3 comments:
Hi Saul,
well, the most simple thing to do would be to call the press officer over at UNICEF and ask him/her if it was indeed a free-bie or if they did pay for it. :)
Saul!! I found you!
You can't imagine how sad I was when I dropped by the Zipcar office in the new year to surprise you with a little thank you gift only to discover you weren't there! More on that later... (I'll drop you a note on facebook)
...as for the Unicef/JV thing. Here is some additional information. There was any monetary "sponsorship" of the car as his ride is already fully funded and this was a special "one off" drive, so they used the car and their relationship with Jacques to reap some serious public awareness and launch a special initiative to raise funds.
(Susan G. Komen foundation did a similar thing last year with their "Warriors in Pink" Campaign with Ford w/ the support of Katherine Legge and the Champ Car World Series) (can you tell I'm a motorsports writer? LOL!)
http://www.jv-world.com/news/story_10519.shtml
http://www.unicef.ca/portal/SmartDefault.aspx?at=2115
Hi Meesh!
Glad you found me and thanks for clearing this up!
saul
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