New ESPN commercial capitalizes on feud between Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski
INDIANAPOLIS – The idea behind ESPN’s “It’s not crazy, it’s sports” advertising campaign “is really to play off and bring fans the exceptional truths that are out there about sports,” Scott Parker, senior director of marketing for the network, said Friday.
But was it perfect timing or pure luck that the promotional piece featuring the hauler drivers for NASCAR’s Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski began airing less than two full days after their latest on-track incident?
“Yeah, we got lucky,” Parker said. “It’s what we call lightning in a bottle.”
The on-going feud between Keselowski and Edwards began earlier this year in March, then re-ignited last Saturday night at Gateway International Raceway in a Nationwide Series event.
“Our agency … really loved the idea of the passion and the rivalry between Carl and Brad’s teams and had a lot of fun with it,” Parker said, adding that the choice of teams had come several months earlier following the initial incident.
The popular piece opens with the two teams’ hauler drivers making a late-night stop to fill their tanks.
“You might have beaten me to Bristol, but there ain’t no way you’re getting to ‘Dega before me,” Edwards’ driver says.
“Driving mighty slow to be talking like that,” Keselowski’s driver replies. In a matter of moments, the two are racing side by side down the highway.
No, they’re not the teams’ actual hauler drivers. One team asked that its hauler driver not be used while the other felt more comfortable allowing someone else to play the part, according to officials.
“When that spot broke, we got emails from both teams saying they were so excited about it,” David Zane, assistant director of marketing, said. “If there was any doubt we shouldn’t have done it [because of the latest altercation], it was totally erased with those notes. We’ve gotten such positive comments on it from tracks and from people that aren’t involved in the spot at all. They just love it because it’s really a truism of the sport.”
Parker said the initial idea was to capture the intensity and excitement of the sport, but to put it in a somewhat different perspective.
“The passion that athletes have and the drivers have, it doesn’t just live on the track on race day,” he said. “They’re competitive by nature and passionate about what they do. And that involves not only the drivers themselves but their whole teams, right down to the guys who drive the haulers. And that’s sort of the spirit of the campaign that we tried to capture in that spot.”
