Danica Patrick foils paparazzi in Can-Am Spyder
Danica Patrick is revving-down from four wheels to three.
The popular race car star has signed on with the three-wheeled Can-Am Spyder motorcycle, and debuts this week in a tongue-in-cheek online campaign that features her as the go-to gal whom celebrities call when seeking instant-escape from paparazzi.
In the commercial — which almost looks to have been filmed from a paparazzo's lens — Patrick shows up on the three-wheeled roadster dubbed "The Paparazzi Escape Vehicle." Aerosmith star Steven Tyler calls and gets whisked away outside a restaurant.
When you're a celebrity, "paparazzi is part of life," says Patrick, in a phone interview from the Los Angeles area commercial set, while filming the ad late last month. "They have a way of finding out where you are." When Patrick was recently in Los Angeles for an event, she says, they even found out which flight she was on and showed up in the baggage claim area.
Consumers are infatuated with all things celebrity. Which also may explain why so many folks also are infatuated with all things paparazzi. Can-Am is offering, for one week, a free service to whisk Los Angeles-area celebrities — and, perhaps, even non-celebrities — who phone 1-844-SPYDER-LA, out of paparazzi-like situations. No, Danica Patrick won't pick you up. But an expert driver with a sales pitch will. The offer, of course, comes with a wink. It's actually a glorified stunt to get folks to test the vehicle. But the company hopes to get calls from real celebs, too.
"It's just a joke that we're taking to an extreme," says Patrick, whose other corporate sponsorships include GoDaddy, Chevrolet and Coke Zero.
Behind all this: an expensive product anxious to find a consumer niche. By latching onto a paparazzi theme, the makers of Can-Am Spyder — which sells for $15,000 to $30,000 — are hoping to raise eyebrows and awareness. And by linking up with race car driver Patrick, the company is hoping for some serious celeb rub-off.
Patrick's popularity with the general public, however, has been fading — to about half of what it was just three years ago in a Q Score poll, notes Henry Schafer, executive vice president of The Q Scores Company, which measures celebrity appeal. At the same time, he notes, her popularity has held up very well with fans of sports and extreme sports — who would be the most likely customers of this three-wheeled cycle.
The goal of the campaign: "To get people to try one," says Tom Riley, marketing director for Can-Am Spyder.
Patrick says she sure has. She got her first one last month — for her birthday.