Apolitical Staples

Welcome back! Been going through withdrawal from not seeing any new posts from you!

Riley and other NASCAR critics are far more ignorant than what they are trying to claim NASCAR fans are. You’re right, the sheer volume of marketing dollars, plus Toyota’s entry this year into the top-level Nextel Cup series, speaks for itself.

It’s typical stereotyping on her part, my wife is the one who got me into watching NASCAR..let the NDP sponsor Euro men in tight bicycle racing… :p

Most of what the left leaning pundits have to say about NASCAR is hogwash as they refuse to believe that a sport born out of the whiskey running days in the south has blossomed into the fastest growing sport in North America. With NASCAR buying CASCAR, the sport will continue its growth into Canada leaving the left in the political dust as they continue their sneering ways.

Susan Riley is one of the quickest in the Canadian press to stereotype people and to deride them. Maybe it’s that fifty-plus mile a day commute (by car) coupled with her pretended ‘concern’ for the environment that is addling her brain.

Susan Riley should give her head a shake. There are lots of F1, Indy, motocross, snowmobiling, etc. etc. fans in Canada too — and guess what — lots of them are female. By lobbing insults at large swaths of the population she isn’t doing her beloved Liberals any favours.

A brief tour through the official sponsors of NASCAR shows a number of brands whose main purchasers are women (Kellogs, Minute Maid, Oral B, Combos).

Conclusion: Either these sponsors are dumb, or Susan Riley is.

Everyone is missing the point with this silly ad campaign.

The ads were not about NASCAR fans. If they were, then they would have advertised with someone who wasn’t a perenial loser who races mostly on the Northeastern US circuit, not in Canada, and they would have sponsored the car for more than three races. Plus, they would have had cabinet minister who might plausibly have been remotely interested in the sport instead of lifelong professional politicians and lawyers like Flaherty, etc. Aren’t we sick of politicians pandering to us and pretending to be “like us” just by paying for a logo on a car? NASCAR fans are not that stupid, nor are Canadian voters.

Nor is the CPC, frankly, despite all appearances to the contrary. Any fan support earned through this is merely bonus.

The reason they sponsored Pierre Bourque’s car (and failed to mention it in their press release!) is to get around election rules and continue to get favourable headlines on his blog (which some call a “news” aggregator).

You see, the “accountable” and “transparent” CPC refuses to say if they bought favourable headlines in the last election. They know that if they had, they would have been required to post “Paid for by…” notices and disclosed it, but they didn’t. But they were the darling of the media last time. They also know they couldn’t get away with that twice with the Canadian public so they’ve got to pre-buy favouratism at a time when they don’t have to declare it.

Oh, I forgot consumer-product giants Unilever and Kraft.

Ted:

1. How many people actually read Bourque’s website? I wouldn’t exactly classify it as a mainstream news site.

2. You don’t understand how NASCAR sponsorship works. You sponsor a CAR OWNER and NUMBER, not a DRIVER. If Bourque switched to another team tomorrow and someone else took his place, the CPC ad would continue to be on the same car with a different driver, it wouldn’t follow Bourque around. (similar to when Dale Earnhardt Jr. at the Nextel Cup level switches teams from the DEI number 8 to Hendrick Motorsports next season, that Bud sponsorship and the 8 won’t follow him unless the two teams make a deal)

3. The fact that Bourque is a loser on the track is irrelevant. NASCAR is a favourite amongst advertisers because their fans support the companies of all sponsors, regardless of the specific car their logo is on, because they are the ones financing the sport.

Harper is insulting the NASCAR and hockey fans. He’s saying you’re stupid enough to be bought by ads.

Ads, possibly by taxpayer dollars.

Lynne cares deeply about NASCAR fans. She feels their pain.

Lynne lectures in rhetoric and logic (both Aristotelean and non-Aristotelean) at Oxford University. She is something of a genius.

The figures you cite are American. Any Canadian figures? I find this whole thing laughable, myself. NASCAR is a big deal - in the American South. It makes sense for Republicans to go after that block of voters for Electoral College reasons if nothing else. It makes very little sense for the Tories to spend money chasing after such a tiny demographic in Canada. But, if they want to do it, go for it.

What is laughable is the degree to which some anti-Harperites are exercised by this trivial issue.

The other Greg,

Ask TSN, Canadian Tire, and the Montreal Villeneuve race track. They obviously have the marketing and TV rating numbers to know how big it is that they are willing to pour huge dollars into it, so much so that Montreal killed their ChampCar race to replace it with a race from the SECOND-tier NASCAR level (Busch). Nobody bothers to show ChampCar or IRL races live in Canada anymore, yet TSN always finds a way to have both the Nextel Cup and Busch races on live (either on the main channel or the alternate one).

Lynne

isn’t that true of pretty much any ad buy by any party - the context of where the ad is placed?