Executive
Waste of the Day: Throwback Thursday: NASCAR Ford Bearing $350,000 FCC Ad Crashes Into Wall
The FCC spent $350,000 in 2008 on an ad on a NASCAR race car to announce the all-digital transition of live TV – and the car crashed.
Topline: In 2008, the Federal Communications Commission announced that all TV stations would be required to broadcast using digital signals instead of analog — and decided to spend $350,000 to turn a NASCAR car into a “Digital TV Transition Ford” advertising that fact. It cost $511,000 in 2024 dollars.
There was just one problem, aside from the wasteful spending: the car didn’t even make it through its first race fully intact.
That’s according to the “Wastebook” reporting published by the late U.S. Senator Dr. Tom Coburn. For years, these reports shined a white-hot spotlight on federal frauds and taxpayer abuses.
Coburn, the late U.S. Senator from Oklahoma, earned the nickname “Dr. No” by stopping thousands of pork-barrel projects using the Senate rules. Projects that he couldn’t stop, Coburn included in his oversight reports.
Coburn’s Wastebook 2008 included 65 examples of outrageous spending worth more than $1.3 billion, including the $350,000 DTV.gov Ford.
Key facts: The FCC, under Chairman Kevin Martin’s direction, sponsored driver David Gilliland’s No. 38 car for three races.
The car’s first race in Arizona was nearly finished when Gilliland crashed into a wall in the 485th lap.
The ads likely were unnecessary. A National Association of Broadcasters report had already found that awareness of the digital transition was at a “near-universal” level.
The watchdog group Citizens Against Government Waste named Martin their “Porker of the Month” in October 2008. They suggested that the NASCAR sponsorship served a secondary purpose of ingratiating Martin with North Carolina voters, where NASCAR runs four office buildings and where Martin hoped to launch future political campaigns.
The FCC also spent $1 million to advertise digital television in AARP magazine, among other purchases.
Critical quote: Even FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein confessed that the car “doesn’t seem like the most efficient use of resources.”
Supporting quote: Martin didn’t seem to mind that his car met a grim fate. “Except for the cars that win the races, the cars that are in wrecks get a lot of attention,” he said.
Summary: The FCC’s $350,000 advertising campaign was arguably more successful than anyone could have hoped; once the “Digital TV Transition Ford” smashed into a wall, it made headlines around the country.
The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com
This article was originally published by RealClearInvestigations and made available via RealClearWire.
Adam Andrzejewski (say: Angie-eff-ski) is the CEO/founder of OpenTheBooks.com. Before dedicating his life to public service, Adam co-founded HomePages Directories, a $20 million publishing company (1997-2007). His works have been featured on the BBC, Good Morning America, ABC World News Tonight, C-SPAN, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, FOX News, CNN, National Public Radio (NPR), Forbes, Newsweek, and many other national media.
Today, OpenTheBooks.com is the largest private repository of U.S. public-sector spending. Mission: post "every dime, online, in real time." In 2022, OpenTheBooks.com captured nearly all public expenditures in the country, including nearly all disclosed federal government spending; 50 of 50 state checkbooks; and 25 million public employee salary and pension records from 50,000 public bodies across America.
The group's aggressive transparency and forensic auditing of government spending has led to the assembly of grand juries, indictments, and successful prosecutions; congressional briefings, hearings, and subpoenas; Government Accountability Office (GAO) audits; Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports; federal legislation; and much more.
Our Honorary Chairman - In Memoriam is U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, MD.
Andrzejewski's federal oversight work was included in the President's Budget To Congress FY2021. The budget cited his organization by name, bullet-pointed their findings, and footnoted/hyperlinked to their report.
Posted on YouTube, Andrzejewski's presentation, The Depth of the Swamp, at the Hillsdale College National Leadership Seminar 2020 in Naples, Florida received 3.8 million views.
Andrzejewski has spoken at the Columbia School of Journalism, Harvard Law School and the law schools at Georgetown and George Washington regarding big data journalism. As a senior policy contributor at Forbes, Adam had nearly 20 million pageviews on 206 published investigations. In 2022, investigative fact-finding on Dr. Fauci's finances led to his cancellation at Forbes.
In 2022, Andrzejewski did 473 live television and radio interviews across broadcast, major cable platforms, and radio shows. Andrzejewski is the author of The Waste of the Day column at Real Clear Policy. The column is syndicated by Sinclair Broadcast Group, owners of nearly 200 ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX affiliates across USA.
Andrzejewski lives in Hinsdale, Illinois with his wife Kerry and three daughters. He is a lector at St. Isaac Jogues Catholic Church and has finished the Chicago Marathon eight times (PR 3:58.49 in 2022).
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