NEW YORK Nextel christens its title sponsorship of Nascar auto racing on Sunday, with the first of six TV spots celebrating the alliance from Omnicom Group's TBWA\Chiat\Day. The ad, "Football," will air during the American Football Conference Championship game on CBS.
The spot depicts racecar drivers Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Michael Waltrip as fans at a professional football game. At one point, Earnhardt gets so excited that he bounds onto the field—in his racecar, no less. The car "scores" and celebrates by doing "doughnuts" in the end zone. Other spots depict Nascar fans using Nextel's "direct-connect" feature to find each other in a crowd and eliminate a concession line. Total spending on the campaign is estimated at $30 million.
Nextel replaced Winston as Nascar's title sponsor last year, signing a 10-year, $700 million deal.
Separately, the New York office of TBWA\C\D has produced three new executions in the "Nextel. Done" campaign it launched last year. Those spots are also expected to break on Sunday.