RACERS AS SALESMEN–MARCH 27

What do Joe Isuzu and Jeremy McGrath have in common? That’s right, they are spokesmen. They appear in advertisements touting products. What’s the difference between Jeremy and Joe? Jeremy is real and Joe Isuzu is fiction (played by an actor named David Leisure).
There are several types of spokesman-style ads. The most obvious is the testimonial. In the testimonial, the spokesman, makes quotable statements about how great the product is and how happy he is with his results since using it.
Next type of spokesman ad is the silent endorsement. In a silent endorsement the spokesman is never quoted, but his mere presence in the ad is proof that he is recommending the product to the buyer. For motocross products, the typical silent endorsement is an action photo of a rider. Often the rider used in the ad as little more than a photo model, but because he is recognizable, it still works as an endorsement.
Finally, the riders name, but not his image, can appear in an ad. Although it lacks the power of the testimonial or silent endorsement, it does give the product the cachet of being used by well-known riders.

SO WHO IS THE KING OF MOTOCROSS SALESMEN?

In the next issue of MXA (May 2001), we surveyed every advertisement to find out who was pitching the most products. We divided the answers into two categories; (1) Pages of advertising. How many pages of the magazine did an individual rider take up. (2) Number of ads. How many different companies and ads did a rider appear in.

AND THE WINNER IS?

Jeremy McGrath had 6-1/2 pages of the May issue of MXA dedicated to products or companies that he was endorsing (albeit silently in some cases). On the number of pages, Jeremy tied with Ricky Carmichael, but when it came to the number of ads Jeremy won hands-down. Jeremy McGrath appeared in 11 different advertisements.
Ricky Carmichael also had 6-1/2 pages of advertising, but achieved that amount in only five ads.
Travis Pastrana was not far behind Jeremy and Ricky, with 6 pages of advertising. In fact, Travis beat Ricky for the number of products he endorses– 7 to 5.
Mike LaRocco was fourth in ad pages with four pages of advertising with his image on them. Mike hawked products for four companies.
Who was fifth? believe it or not, Heath Voss, Michael Byrne and Mike Jones tied with two pages of advertising apiece (although Byrne and Jones made their two-page totals via large two-page spread ads). Voss appeared in two one-page ads.
Here is the rest of the list:
Nathan Ramsey: 1-1/5 pages (two different ads)
Mike Craig: 1-1/4 pages (three different ads)
Sebastien Tortelli: 1-1/4 pages (two different ads)
Ezra Lusk:1-1/4 pages (two different ads)
Doug Dubach, Ernesto Fonseca, Steve Lamson, Shane Trittler, Buddy Antunez, David Vuillemin and Dustin Nelson–one page each.
Seth Enslow, Carey Hart and Justin Buckelew– 1/2 page each.