Why Buy Advertising When You Can Purchase Headlines?

The Conservative Party of Canada, currently governing through no fault nor skill of their own, is taking the Party to the Wal-Mart crowd.

They're sponsoring a car on the Nascar circuit.

And that would be fine, except that it is of course, about careful control of the messaging: The driver they're sponsoring is none other than Pierre Bourque of the Bourque Newswatch site.

Do you think Bourque is likely to tax the Conservatives with any detrimental news headlines anytime soon? I mean, there's being an "escort"--Borque's headline aggregator has never been especially critical in his coverage of the New! Green! (Did we mention NEW?) Conservative Government of Canada.

But this looks like throwing himself on his back for a fiver.

Let's go to the tape:

The federal Conservative party is moving forward with a new strategy to make heads turn with its logo — at more than 160 kilometres per hour.

The party took a different advertising track by sponsoring a stock car in the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series, as it tries to win over the estimated one in five Canadians who counts himself or herself as a NASCAR fan.
[...]
NASCAR provides a "terrific medium" to spread the party brand as Canadians switch from traditional sources of information, such as newspapers and television, into the rapid-fire digital age, said the car's driver, Pierre Bourque, also creator of the Bourque Newswatch website.

"This is a great opportunity for them to get some facetime with a huge segment of the Canadian electorate," Bourque told CBC news on Monday. "It's a natural fit for them."

Translation: we're looking for folks who are illiterate to the news, or better yet, watch Fox. Next, watch for big blue "C"s tattoed onto the chests of World Wrestling Entertainment stars.

Bourque steered the Dodge Charger stock car to a respectable 13th-place finish, but initially, all was not well under the Tory emblem on the hood.

"The engine blew up in practice," Bourque said. After starting the race in the 22nd position, Bourque ran as high as fifth.

Hopefully paralleling the party's results in the next election.

The unique branding strategy is "historic" for a political party, Conservative party spokesman Ryan Sparrow said Monday.

"It's the first time it's ever been done," Sparrow told CBC News Online. "NASCAR fans are the people we want to reach. They're hard-working Canadians who pay their taxes. They play by the rules."

Whereas everybody knows the non-Nascar-watching populace cheat at Monopoly and evade Revenue Canada in their (foreign-built) Rolls-Royces.

Sparrow wouldn't say how much the party paid for the sponsorship, likening such a disclosure to "Coke telling Pepsi how much" it paid for getting its brand on billboards.

With the minor difference that, aside from through its NEW Green CONSERVATIVE new Government of GREEN Canada contacts, Pepsi doesn't currently have its hands in the taxpayers' pockets.

Of course, this is no worry for Liberal or New Democrat strategists. After all, the segment of Canada that actually votes conservative has a hard enough time reading stationary objects like signs. How they'll make out reading the words "Conservative Party of Canada" at 160 Km/h I'd hate to guess.