Advertising; a form of communication intended to persuade an audience to purchase or take action upon products.
Although I try not to be affected by advertising and product placement, I’ll admit, if an influential celebrity or sportsperson is endorsing a product, I am more likely to buy it than a similar product. Its very clever how these companies make us believe we need their product and promote it in a way that is very hard not to notice. I’m talking about Jarek Hampel, Emil Sayfutdinov and Jason Crump and their long term love for Red Bull. Although I liked Red Bull before it was all over their bikes and caps etc. I seem to be drinking it more and more these days. The same goes for Greg Hancock and Monster Energy, if you had £1 for every time you saw their logo on his equipment or he mentions their brand name, you would be very rich!
The rooftop advert with Jarek Hampel for Red Bull in his Ipswich Witches kevlars was certainly different, riding in the snow. But adverts that are different make people watch them more intently, so it’s taken in better. There have been many adverts that have been weirder in the past and no doubt we have some on the way... we kind of expect crazy advertising campaigns now!
Company logo’s on merchandise is a great way of getting your company known. I can think of a few off the top of my head... Red Care & Simon Stead, M&J Sealey & Charlie Gjedde, Hagon Shocks & Edward Kennett, Meridian Lifts & Hans Andersen, OK Benzin & Nicki Pedersen, the list goes on... It definitely seems to work and the more exposure a company can get by sponsoring riders, the better for them. Having speedway on Sky Sports means their logo’s can reach millions of viewers.
Then you have the really bizarre products for sportsmen to advertise... Freddie Lindgren advertising hot dogs! I’m not exactly too sure what he was saying in the commercial (I need to brush up on my Swedish!) but if I’m honest that would be enough to make me buy a hot dog!
