https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tl_1Fgs2fy8
Dale Earnhardt Jr is approaching his final NASCAR race. His professional racing career, which started when he was 17 years old, is turning the corner into its final chapter in a series that’s seen an Earnhardt run for decades. As part of the goodbye tour for Dale, one of his long-standing sponsors has created a video to show its appreciation for all that Jr has done for them in this arena.
Now, I’m no big NASCAR fan. That’s the other J Gluck. But Dale Jr has always seen like a stand-up guy working for wins against a sea of racers that want to beat him solely because he’s his father’s son. Dale is a two-time Busch Series champion, two-time winner of the Daytona 500, and a perennial fan favorite. He’s the guy you want to see do well in this sport, and he also clearly has fun with it as well.
So if, like myself, you’re not much of a NASCAR fan, you can be a Dale Jr fan. Hit play on the video above and watch this well-produced short ode to a man who is a major part of the NASCAR universe, and will continue to be when he moves into the broadcast booth next season.
Also… sidenote: I’d love to see a craft brewery compete in this space. Someone needs to step up with the dollars and sponsor the Fontana or Sonoma events.
Watch Budweiser pay tribute to Dale Earnardt Jr with One Last Ride
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4 responses to “Watch Budweiser pay tribute to Dale Earnardt Jr with One Last Ride”
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Re: the sidenote. I’ve often wondered about the power of advertising/sponsorship. If this Budweiser car does well, do I bypass my usual beer selection the next time I’m purchasing in favor of the Bud? Don’t I drink the beer/eat the candy/wash my clothes in the products that I’ve decided I like, or does seeing the name of a competing product repeatedly on TV make me want to switch? Separately, I can’t imagine that a craft brewery would be seeking the NASCAR demographic.
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I’m not in marketing, this is what I picked up from Mad Men, The Wire, and Narcos:
Everybody knows Bud already indeed. For products like beer, it’s all about market shares: everybody knows there is beer in the world, but which to pick. In this case, the advertising industry (and a good share of politics) rely on redundancy – repeat it over and over again, work the subconscious part of the brains, until you’ll say it yourself. Habits are nasty, and take time to change, so let’s be persistent.
The effect of redundancy on desires and habits is under discussion (e-sportists, to scratch the surface), but even if it doesn’t work for beer, it surely works for ad companies. Even I know what the Target livery looks like, and we don’t have that franchise over here, and I tend to buy the same few types of candy bars.
The higher art is to implant certain connections (coolness, high tech, reliability, fun etc.) with a brand. Guerrilla marketing, product placement, your beauty tip youtube channel – they all help this course even better than billboards. So eventually, after a years-long bombardment it is harder, and demands a rather active purchase decision, to jump for a product that’s not advertised as hard, especially for products you don’t think too hard about. Needless to say, large breweries spend a lot on ads, probably because the ad agencies keep telling them to do so.
For a craft beer, it’s more about gaining popularity, and actually inform people “hey, there’s us, too!”. This would help to lower the threshold for what I called “active purchase decision”.
I don’t think the NASCAR demographic would be entirely wrong (you have to inform and educate people, sometimes: the Chrono package is not just a stopwatch), but a craft brewery usually can’t afford NASCAR, and won’t be able to provide product nationwide anyway.
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I’ve rewatched this 7-8 times since yesterday and it still hits me in the feels. But, I’ve been following NASCAR since the mid-90’s… it’s gonna feel weird not to have Dale Jr. (or Matt Kenseth, for that matter) in a top team’s racecar next year.
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none of these clowns could win a Lemons. they cant manage to turn right. but no problem… the only reason to drink Bud is for taste. tasteyvision is not available yet. one of the best tasting Buds from experience is from the brewery in Sacramento back when they had a genuine brewmaster who tasted the beer before it was shipped. 1970s-ish. it was a very nice brew. on par with some of the best craft beers today. taste is always a long lasting memory.
NAAScur probably has a plan to let Jr. win somehow. NAAScur has no taste.
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