Reader, stop us if we’re getting too excited here. But we’ve not seen an ad for a sporting championship—especially as one as down on its luck as IndyCar—for a long time.
Produced by Special Group in the US, the ad spruiks the upcoming IndyCar season on Fox Sports in the US. And it’s a cracker. Plus there are more iterations featuring the other drivers to come, according Special Group US creative director Joshua Hacohen.
For those unfamiliar, IndyCar is the pinnacle of open-wheel racing in the US. But while the vehicles may bear a resemblance to the more popular F1 cars, there are some significant differences between the sports.
IndyCars have higher top speeds than F1 cars thanks to their more slippery designs. IndyCars race on oval circuits as well as regular racetracks. Whereas F1 cars tend to race on twistier tracks with lower top speeds but are correspondingly faster in, through and out of corners than IndyCars. Thanks to the higher speeds, IndyCars tend to be more dangerous, too—hence the large windscreen and driver protections.
The cars in IndyCar are nearly identical to one another, whereas F1 cars are built by individual manufacturers.
IndyCar has suffered from declining viewership in recent years. While the Indianapolis 500—its equivalent of F1’s Monaco Grand Prix—drew a record 13 million viewers in 2023, only one other race attracted more than a million viewers. Back in 1993, no race dipped below 2.5 million with that season’s Indianapolis 500 bringing in 12.2 million viewers.
But the series has now moved from NBC to Fox Sports, with the new rights holder promising expanded coverage. Here’s hoping this new ad campaign will get the bums back on sofas.