Aflac adores Carl Edwards but doesn't endorse garage scuffle
NEW YORK – Aflac loves Carl Edwards and is paying big money to pair him with its iconic duck in commercials and on the hood of his car, but the company would like to not see its driver pictured scuffling with other drivers in the NASCAR Sprint Cup garage area.
Aflac Vice President Al Johnson, speaking at the Street & Smith’s Motorsports Marketing Forum on Tuesday, talked about the line drivers have with their sponsors in showing their emotions.
“Obviously, we’re very protective of our brand,” said Johnson, who oversees all advertising for the company. “We certainly don’t want garage scuffles going on or things to happen … whether it’s a celebrity that’s in one of our commercials on down to a sports star.
“But we do want people to be true to themselves.”
Johnson said he believes his company has found the right person in Edwards and doesn’t want the Roush Fenway Racing driver to hide his passion. Aflac just doesn’t want it go overboard as it did in the Lowe’s Motor Speedway garage area when Edwards and Kevin Harvick got in a brief shoving match this year.
“We want someone like Carl Edwards, who has certain beliefs, sticks by them and stands up for them because that’s the way we are as a brand as well,” he said.
NASCAR has tried to be more lenient in penalizing drivers who show their emotion. NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France said that the commercial element of the sport cannot hold back the personalities. But there is a time when officials have to get involved.
“There’s limits of course, but in general, we want them to be more expressive,” France said. “We’ve actually eased up, if you look at the penalties we issued in 2008. Every commissioner worries about escalation. … We’re out there with 3,000-pound cars, so there are limits when we say, ‘Express your emotions.’
“But if you’re upset and you’re mad and you’re in the heat of competition, do we want you to walk around if you’re in a library? Of course not. We want you to express your emotions.”
Johnson said Aflac feels as if “we’ve got the right personality for our brand,” and it needs Edwards to engage the fans with his personality.
“We don’t sit there and say, ‘Hey, Carl, you have to act a certain way or do a certain thing,’“ Johnson said. “Obviously, we have things in our contract to protect ourselves.
“If he becomes this watered down, corporate spokesperson, just becomes vanilla, it doesn’t help us. ESPN is not going to want to talk to him because he’s going to give the same old spiel and is going to turn the viewers off. We think it’s important for the driver to have that right personality and for us as a company and a partner, not to bring him down but build his brand up as well.”
