$3.9 million "advertorial" value for sponsors in World Series via Fox and players--NY Times

• THIS BLOG ISN'T IN THE FORMER SOVIET UNION. THERE'S NO NEWS BLACKOUT HERE DURING THE WORLD SERIES.

(NY Times): "I’ve rarely seen a sponsor so overtly integrated into a game, which is great news for Taco Bell and those who love free crunchy seasoned beef tacos.

• Taco Bell was smart enough to devise a campaign called “Steal A Base, Steal A Taco,” in which the first stolen base in the World Series lets anyone walk into one of its outlets Tuesday from 2 to 5 p.m. (no time zones specified) and get a free taco.

And here were Fox’s Joe Buck and Tim McCarver in the bottom of the sixth.

• “No stolen bases yet in the game,” McCarver said during a David Ortiz at-bat.

“No free tacos for America,” said Buck, then added, “At some point, it’s going to happen.”

Then, amazingly, after Ortiz’s flyout, Fox cut to Coco Crisp and Royce Clayton (combined 2007 salary: $5.3 million) in the Red Sox’ dugout for 40 seconds of taped, unprompted(?),

• cheerful chit-chat about how to get those free tacos.

It was great exposure beyond buying commercial time; Taco Bell’s in-game exposure was worth $3.9 million, according to Joyce Julius & Associates, which measures the media value of sponsorships. Tim Brosnan, Major League Baseball’s executive vice president for business, said Fox was not required to extend the basic Taco Bell promotion into the call of the game. “But I think Fox wants to make the sponsors happy,” he said.

• That please-the-sponsor sentiment was evident when Buck clucked over the DirecTV starship that hovered above Fenway Park flashing images from its HD screen (“It’s hard to take your eyes off it,”) he said...

"And how about that ebullient woman who held aloft a placard in the fifth inning that morphed from one Chevy Malibu message to another?

• She wasn’t there;
• she and 30 or 40 other fans in red T-shirts were brought to Fenway days earlier by Chevrolet to shoot the ad and were inserted into the broadcast as if they were there Wednesday night."

From NY Times column by Richard Sandomir, "World Series Broadcast Has a Taco Filling," 10/26/07

• This must somehow be the Yankees' fault. (sm)

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