Daytona Beach News-Journal
Everyone is all ears over bunny logo
source here
1/27/06
DAYTONA BEACH -- Over the years, public-relations maestros have gone to great lengths to scare up crowds for press conferences announcing a new sponsor. Sometimes it works, but other times, unfortunately for them, they're not offering free hats.
The key to drawing big numbers, however, was finally revealed Thursday, and amazingly it didn't involve free hats. Leave it to a racetrack in Daytona Beach -- a town that long ago discovered what draws more photographers than a Halloween-comes-early outing by Michael Jackson -- to unveil a lure more enticing than a Nextel cap. Playmates.
Yes, fellas, those kind of playmates, here to help promote their magazine's entry into American sports car racing.
Tommy Constantine, spokesman and driver for one of the new Playboy-sponsored Grand American teams, assured everyone the venture would be "professional and tastefully done."
We showed up anyway.
In droves.
There were so many reporters in the room, you'd never guess that the coffee pot and cookie tray were on the opposite side of the building.
Rumor has it, the dais consisted of 10 or 12 drivers, but since the right side of the stage featured three walking/talking/smiling Playmates -- including the current Playmate of the Month, Cassandra Lynn -- well, we'll need photo documentation to confirm the presence of drivers. If there is any.
Eventually, we discovered that, the team's cars do feature some well-placed air-brushing, but no, they don't have staples across the middle of the roofs, or subscription cards that endlessly flutter from the trunk. And yes, believe it or not, it wasn't all that long before the awkward gazes and juvenile one-liners fizzled out, giving way to a fairly legitimate question.
How'd this happen?
"A LEGAL PRODUCT"
Grand Am, after all, is the sporty little brother of NASCAR, an organization that, in the past, has been known to fret (and sometimes squash) a potential team sponsor that didn't fit the family-sport template.
Viagra got the thumbs-up. But Trojan reportedly didn't fit the template. Go figure. In terms of seemingly compatible products, that was sorta like OK'ing Coke but not Captain Morgan.
Given the history of sponsorships, certainly the idea of a Playboy entry into Grand Am had to be kicked around the corner offices on Speedway Boulevard. Right?
"No, this was a no-brainer for me," Grand Am president Roger Edmondson aid. "It's a legal product. Their history has been one of tasteful distribution.
"If we have a situation arise where somebody asks us about a sponsorship that we think would not be appropriate," added Edmondson, "then we'd raise our hand and say, 'Hold on, we can't do that.' "
Hustler? Penthouse?
"I don't want to say," said Edmondson, who then lifted the famous line regarding pornography from former Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart. "I think we'll know it when we see it, or when we don't see it, whatever the case may be."
Back at Playboy headquarters, just to be safe, marketing man Larry Djerf did some homework. Knowing that he'd have the usual promotional tag-alongs, he researched the proper attire for a racetrack and learned, as everyone who ever visited the Daytona garage knows, there are two definite no-no's: no open-toed shoes, no sleeveless shirts.
"We assumed going in that we'd take the measure of what's right for whatever venue we go to," Djerf said.
Djerf, bless his heart, apparently saw nothing that prohibits pink belly-shirts. After all, it's hardly the first time someone around here wore a too-tight shirt that exposed the gut -- only this time it wasn't some volunteer mechanic in the ARCA garage.
"We had lengthy discussions about what would be the proper attire for the Playmates," Djerf said. "We looked at pictures of what (Formula One) models look like, what other sponsor models look like at the racetrack.
"There are a lot of misconceptions about Playboy -- that every time we bring a playmate to an event that there's gonna be a photo shoot, and there's gonna be clothes coming off and posing. And that's not the case."
How that affects attendance at future news conferences remains to be seen, as does how this plunge into the Grand Am's grotto might affect any plans Playboy might have for racing's Big Kahuna -- NASCAR.
"We haven't had real formal talks with NASCAR to figure out what we can do," Djerf said. "The advice that's out there is that they're not quite ready for that yet. That's sort of the word on the street. ... Nor are we ready to go to a team and say we have marketing dollars to sponsor a car. We're not ready to do that either."
Just to be safe, if and when they decide they're ready and decide to make that pitch, it might help their cause to bring You-Know-Who, who, surrounded by media Thursday, proved she's easily impressed.
"I'm excited," Miss February said. "I get excited over everything. So I'm just happy to be here."
Those paid to gather publicity for Grand Am are also happy she's here. How that will translate to a bigger piece of the racing pie remains to be seen. But if lightning-quick sports cars and belly-shirted playmates can't gather a paying crowd, it might be time to fold the tents.
ken.willis@news-jrnl.com
Everyone is all ears over bunny logo
source here
1/27/06
DAYTONA BEACH -- Over the years, public-relations maestros have gone to great lengths to scare up crowds for press conferences announcing a new sponsor. Sometimes it works, but other times, unfortunately for them, they're not offering free hats.
The key to drawing big numbers, however, was finally revealed Thursday, and amazingly it didn't involve free hats. Leave it to a racetrack in Daytona Beach -- a town that long ago discovered what draws more photographers than a Halloween-comes-early outing by Michael Jackson -- to unveil a lure more enticing than a Nextel cap. Playmates.
Yes, fellas, those kind of playmates, here to help promote their magazine's entry into American sports car racing.
Tommy Constantine, spokesman and driver for one of the new Playboy-sponsored Grand American teams, assured everyone the venture would be "professional and tastefully done."
We showed up anyway.
In droves.
There were so many reporters in the room, you'd never guess that the coffee pot and cookie tray were on the opposite side of the building.
Rumor has it, the dais consisted of 10 or 12 drivers, but since the right side of the stage featured three walking/talking/smiling Playmates -- including the current Playmate of the Month, Cassandra Lynn -- well, we'll need photo documentation to confirm the presence of drivers. If there is any.
Eventually, we discovered that, the team's cars do feature some well-placed air-brushing, but no, they don't have staples across the middle of the roofs, or subscription cards that endlessly flutter from the trunk. And yes, believe it or not, it wasn't all that long before the awkward gazes and juvenile one-liners fizzled out, giving way to a fairly legitimate question.
How'd this happen?
"A LEGAL PRODUCT"
Grand Am, after all, is the sporty little brother of NASCAR, an organization that, in the past, has been known to fret (and sometimes squash) a potential team sponsor that didn't fit the family-sport template.
Viagra got the thumbs-up. But Trojan reportedly didn't fit the template. Go figure. In terms of seemingly compatible products, that was sorta like OK'ing Coke but not Captain Morgan.
Given the history of sponsorships, certainly the idea of a Playboy entry into Grand Am had to be kicked around the corner offices on Speedway Boulevard. Right?
"No, this was a no-brainer for me," Grand Am president Roger Edmondson aid. "It's a legal product. Their history has been one of tasteful distribution.
"If we have a situation arise where somebody asks us about a sponsorship that we think would not be appropriate," added Edmondson, "then we'd raise our hand and say, 'Hold on, we can't do that.' "
Hustler? Penthouse?
"I don't want to say," said Edmondson, who then lifted the famous line regarding pornography from former Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart. "I think we'll know it when we see it, or when we don't see it, whatever the case may be."
Back at Playboy headquarters, just to be safe, marketing man Larry Djerf did some homework. Knowing that he'd have the usual promotional tag-alongs, he researched the proper attire for a racetrack and learned, as everyone who ever visited the Daytona garage knows, there are two definite no-no's: no open-toed shoes, no sleeveless shirts.
"We assumed going in that we'd take the measure of what's right for whatever venue we go to," Djerf said.
Djerf, bless his heart, apparently saw nothing that prohibits pink belly-shirts. After all, it's hardly the first time someone around here wore a too-tight shirt that exposed the gut -- only this time it wasn't some volunteer mechanic in the ARCA garage.
"We had lengthy discussions about what would be the proper attire for the Playmates," Djerf said. "We looked at pictures of what (Formula One) models look like, what other sponsor models look like at the racetrack.
"There are a lot of misconceptions about Playboy -- that every time we bring a playmate to an event that there's gonna be a photo shoot, and there's gonna be clothes coming off and posing. And that's not the case."
How that affects attendance at future news conferences remains to be seen, as does how this plunge into the Grand Am's grotto might affect any plans Playboy might have for racing's Big Kahuna -- NASCAR.
"We haven't had real formal talks with NASCAR to figure out what we can do," Djerf said. "The advice that's out there is that they're not quite ready for that yet. That's sort of the word on the street. ... Nor are we ready to go to a team and say we have marketing dollars to sponsor a car. We're not ready to do that either."
Just to be safe, if and when they decide they're ready and decide to make that pitch, it might help their cause to bring You-Know-Who, who, surrounded by media Thursday, proved she's easily impressed.
"I'm excited," Miss February said. "I get excited over everything. So I'm just happy to be here."
Those paid to gather publicity for Grand Am are also happy she's here. How that will translate to a bigger piece of the racing pie remains to be seen. But if lightning-quick sports cars and belly-shirted playmates can't gather a paying crowd, it might be time to fold the tents.
ken.willis@news-jrnl.com
