Branding: Formula One Versus NASCAR
Grand Prix and NASCAR participants do the same thing: they drive around a track in an automobile as fast as they can. The fastest participant in either format wins. And, because of the high speeds involved, the dangers are equally great in both. Drivers, such as Mario Andretti and Kimi Raikkonen, have switched from one circuit to the other.
Yet there could not be a starker contrast between the two in terms of perception among the sporting public. To put it mildly: Formula One is for the moneyed classes and NASCAR is the sport of the working man. Formula One is Monaco, NASCAR is Indianapolis.
Nowhere were these stereotypes epitomized as strongly as in the 2006 film “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.” NASCAR driver Ricky Bobby, played by Will Ferrell, is a Budweiser-guzzling, fast-food eating, good ole blue collar fella. His antagonist, Jean Girard (Sacha Barron-Cohen), is a wine-sipping, philosophy-reading, gay French crossover from Formula One.
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