Commercial Appeal
On the set with Kasey Kahne and the Allstate Girls to find out why advertisers love NASCAR drivers
Posted: Wednesday November 29, 2006 1:58PM; Updated: Wednesday November 29, 2006 1:58PM



As a racing hero, Kahne is used to being in control, but in the made-up, mocked-up, miked-up world of commercials, things get blown up or crushed, and someone's always in the backseat.
Bob Rosato/SI


By Richard O'Brien

Kasey Kahne is ready for his close-up. It's a Monday morning in early October, and Kahne is in a familiar spot, seated behind the wheel of a Dodge Charger. But there's no number 9 on the side of this vehicle and no racetrack anywhere nearby. Kahne's car is immobile, jacked up on a special trailer and parked at the intersection of State Highway 200 and Big Lick Road in the tiny town of Stanfield, N.C., about an hour east of Charlotte. A very big television camera is pointed through the windshield at Kahne; there are wires and cables and lights everywhere, and a dozen film-crew members are scurrying around the car. A makeup woman reaches in the window to put a little powder on Kahne's nose. A director barks, "Ready!" into a walkie-talkie, and Kahne's face freezes as he gazes over the steering wheel.

Welcome to another day at the office for the modern NASCAR driver. Kahne is in Stanfield -- not, it should be pointed out, during the off-season but rather smack in the middle of the Chase for the Nextel Cup -- to shoot two new television commercials for Allstate insurance. You might think that the Monday after a race would be the time for a little recuperation or some serious in-the-shop preparation for the following week's event. But in NASCAR, sponsors put up the cash that keeps the engines fired, and drivers today are asked to do far more than ever to help those sponsors get their messages across to consumers. Watch any NASCAR race on TV these days, and, it seems, you'll see at least as much of the top drivers during the commercial breaks as you do during the actual racing. Whether it's Dale Jarrett at the wheel of the big brown truck for UPS or Denny Hamlin wreaking havoc with a riding mower on behalf of FedEx; whether it's Tony Stewart remodeling his patio for Home Depot or Dale Earnhardt Jr. touting Wrangler jeans (or Gillette razors or Enterprise rental cars or Budweiser beer or ...), the advertising campaigns for the biggest NASCAR sponsors are driven, fittingly enough, by the drivers.

"Advertising agencies know that NASCAR fans trust and like the drivers and can't get enough of them," says Andrew Giangola, director of business communications for NASCAR. "That's why all the commercials are built around them."

And, where once a cutting-edge NASCAR commercial might have consisted of a grinning Richard Petty holding up a box of Goody's headache powder, today's campaigns feature witty scenarios that trade smartly on the drivers' personas, and on the fans' sophistication and sense of humor. Says John Osborn, the New York president and CEO of the advertising agency BBDO -- whose clients form a veritable NASCAR all-star starting grid, including Lowe's, Cingular, FedEx, M&M's and Gillette -- "When we develop [a campaign], the most important thing we have to pay attention to is authenticity. Fans are so knowing, and passions run so deep, that we have to show that we get it."






Driver Kasey Kahne filming "Girls Day Out III"
Bob Rosato/SI


There's no question that Allstate gets it. The company's "accident forgiveness" spots featuring Kahne, NASCAR's reigning heartthrob, being pursued by a trio of overly enthusiastic female fans have enlivened NASCAR telecasts for the past two seasons and become an online favorite as well as a hot topic on NASCAR bulletin boards. The first spot in the series, Girls' Day Out, which debuted in July '05, opens with the three women -- a blonde, a brunette and a redhead -- driving an SUV into the infield parking lot at a NASCAR track. Suddenly one of the women spots Kahne. "It's Kasey Kahne!" she says breathlessly. A slow-motion shot of Kahne on the back of a golf cart follows as the women gasp and vamp, and then the woman behind the wheel, the redhead, backs the SUV into a towering signpost, which crashes down onto another car in the lot like a giant cleaver from heaven. Voice-over tagline: "Your rates shouldn't go up just because of an accident."

It's a bit of disaster comedy worthy of Buster Keaton. More to the point, Kahne cleverly spoofs his own image as a fire-suited sex symbol.

The second spot, Dreamin', ups the ante: The same three women, driving together to a personal appearance by Kahne ("I can't believe we're really going to meet Kasey Kahne!" the redhead squeals), imagine what it would be like to be with the dreamy driver. In soft focus we see each of their fantasies: One enjoys a cozy ride in Kahne's car, another performs a romantic tire change with Kasey, the third is proposed to by a kneeling Kahne in Victory Lane. The spot ends, thanks to more distracted driving by the redhead (and some Rube Goldbergesque special effects), with a 14,000-pound tire falling from the sky to pancake Kahne's race car. The tagline this time is, "Now would be a good time to have accident forgiveness," and in the closing shot the redhead sheepishly approaches a stunned Kahne and tells him, "I'm super sorry about your car."

It's a long way from Goody's and the King. Indeed, as Kahne says while waiting between shots on the set in Stanfield, "You don't realize until you're part of it how much it takes to make these ads."

Charley Wickman, the executive creative director for Leo Burnett, whose team produced the Allstate campaign, describes filming the spots, with their mix of deft comic interplay and spectacular action, as being "as close to Hollywood as you get in commercials."

So how does a 26-year-old race car driver with no acting experience adjust to being, in effect, the star of a miniseries? "You just listen to what the director and the crew tell you," says Kahne -- which, come to think of it, is a lot like what a driver does during a race. "You've got to trust your team."

And your costars. By the time Kahne arrives on the Stanfield set, Jen Biederman (who plays the blonde), Dana Gilhooley (the brunette) and Judy Fleming (the reckless redhead) -- or, as they are referred to collectively in NASCAR circles, the Allstate Girls -- have spent more than an hour shooting and reshooting setup shots. When the cameras stop rolling, they greet Kahne with hugs and cheerful banter. ("You have got some serious acting to do!") The three actresses have become friends in the course of filming the spots, and their camaraderie is clear both on-screen and off (though off-screen the repartee can get a bit racier). "We crack each other up," says Fleming, who is amazed at the reception the campaign has gotten in the racing world.

As is Kahne. "Do you know how often I get asked whether I really know you guys?" he asks the actresses. "I say, Yeah!"

Later, with Kahne back in the car repeatedly performing a very professional double take ("I just think back to a time in my life when some girls might have approached me for real," he says, clearly at home with the Method technique), Biederman says, "Kasey is so easy to work with."

"He's really educated us on NASCAR, too," says Gilhooley. "That helps a lot."

The shooting at Stanfield and later at nearby Concord Motor Sports Park goes on until dark, and Kahne gets in and out of the car far more often than he does on any race day. Without spilling the beans, it can be said that the commercial (which will debut during the Budweiser Shootout 2007 telecast) ends with the usual pyrotechnics -- in this case, literally.

The whole crew will be together again the next evening to finish the second commercial, but for now Kasey Kahne, actor, has shifted gears back to being Kasey Kahne, racer: Leaving the set, he is on his cellphone making calls about his sprint car team. As Fleming observed during a quiet life-imitating-commercial-art moment earlier in the day, "He doesn't know how hot he is."

Maybe not, but Allstate does -- and that's no accident.



http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/raci...ey.kahne/1.html

awesome article and i'm cracking up

:rolofl

:lmbo

That's a great article.. lol Quite amusing

Thanks for posting!

Great article, and VERY amusing! LOL

Thanks for posting it, Sara!

awww :) Great article. Thank you for posting it. It was funny.

Ah, Kasey. Poor kid. It's like Carrie was saying---I honestly don't thing he gets what all the hype is surrounding him, he just wants to race.

:) Thanks for sharing

:nod

:lmao



great article!!

Ain't that the truth. Lol

Helena - you know he wants to figet with those hands - hehe

I agree, he just wants to race

Great article! Thanks for posting!

And this article completely affirms that statement.

This was my favorite part! :) I never pictures Kasey as a method actor. I :hearts this article, thanks so much for posting it! I can't wait for the new commercials!! :clap :cloud9

:lmao That was a great article! Thanks for posting it!

that second picture made me laugh! cool articles, thanks for posting them!

Great article! Thanks for sharing it! Can't wait to see the new ad(s).

:clap Great post!!

Thanks for posting!

haha, that article was great and certainly amusing

That was a great article -thanks :)