| Presidential Racing |
14 July 2003
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NASCAR Dads -- Marketing's New Focus Group
The marketing people who have taken over American politics have developed a new term, "NASCAR Dads." Taking its place next to "Soccer Moms," this lamentable phrase will be over done before the Iowa primaries. Defined as white, working-class men who are pro-Republican, the labeling of this group is yet another attempt to put the cart of voters ahead of the horse of issues.
NASCAR, the National Association for Stock Car
Auto Racing
, has always had a following among car buffs, but only recently has it turned up on TV. It website is also quite popular. Naturally, then, one looks to it for votes, and Senator Bob Graham (D-FL) has gone so far as to sponsor a NASCAR Craftsman Truck with "Bob Graham for President Ford F-150"on it. It won last week-end at a race in Kansas.
Unfortunately, for Mr. Graham and the politics as marketing crowd, Jon Wood, the winning driver said after the race, "I don't know anything about politics -- nothing." He further confessed to not being sure about his party affiliation, "I still don't know what I am."
The difficulty is that the 75 million NASCAR fans, or so the press figure stands, may not have much in common beyond racing. Their numbers rival the total vote in the last presidential election, which itself was rather well divided, just showing how hard it is to get that many to agree on anything. One wonders what the folks at the race track think of the Democrats filibuster on capping malpractice damages -- most likely, they are unaware of it.
Far better for the candidates would be to take principled stands on issues that matter to them, and then convince voters, regardless of their leisure activities, to support them. In order to lead, one must be ahead of the crowd -- not going along with it.