Blackwater goes NASCAR

Blackwater USA's public relations are definitely evolving as discussed last week.  BW is co-sponsoring a truck in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series on Saturday in Memphis.  The race will be broadcast on SPEED TV at 8:30 PM EDT and since only 35 trucks are on the entry list, Blackwater is sure to get some air time. 

NASCAR fans who watch it, please let me know if their Dodge is outfitted with a trunk monkey--a rear gunner with a mounted machine gun that's found in the back of many of the SUVs running around Iraq.  Now that would really kick NASCAR up a notch!

(Tip of the hat to Erik von Rader who brought this to my attention.)

Comments

[GDAEman]

Hi, Nice tid bit. I'll link to it in a follow-up to a guest piece on my site about Blackwater lawsuits. Hope you'll return the favour. It's one of several.

[Fred]

Actually, Blackwater sponsored racing nearly eight years ago had their own sponsored car. When they built their current driving track, they were going to put in a Craftsman racing oval with 5,000 seats to race on the weekends. The original plan is hanging in the lodge where you check in to train.

[Erik Rader]

This will be a long comment, so bear with me.

I watched the race last night, and Blackwater got a nice piece of publicity, as the #53 truck and driver were specifically spotlighted for about 15 seconds during the pre-race coverage, in which their "Grizzly" armored vehicle was mentioned. They were also mentioned at lap 101 (the mid-point of the race), and other than that, no mention (especially considering the truck blew an engine on lap 117).

No trunk-monkey on the vehicle, but here's the paint scheme - all black truck, with a white BW URL on the quarter-panels. The deck-lid (where the bed would normally be) had the BW logo and name on it. While I wasn't able to get a good look at the hood, it appeared to have the co-sponsor's URL on it.

Best picture I could find here:
http://www.truckseries.com/photog/displayimage.php?album=439&pos=253

To be honest, I find this a very astute move on BW's part. NASCAR has traditionally had a very conservative viewer base, the very types of individuals that BW would want to recruit from.

And make no mistake about this sponsorship - it's not about marketing the brand, it's about recruiting. You don't market a brand to a sympathetic audience, and the NCTS audience would definitely be one.

Considering the fact that the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, National Guard, Border Patrol, VFW, American Legion and Paralyzed Veterans of America have all sponsored NASCAR vehicles as a recruiting tool, BW's sponsorship is a logical step in their recruitment campaign.

One other interesting tidbit of information I discovered yesterday was that Force Protection also sponsored a car this year.

I've got to publicly thank Jayski.com who has an outstanding database of year-to-year sponsors and TruckSeries.com where I found the photo.

[Federico]

Blackwater USA's public relations are definitely evolving as discussed last week

Just like the new Media section in their website? ;)