Advertisers Target Outdoorsmen for ESPN Show
NEW YORK -- When it comes to targeting consumers, an ax may work as well as an ad.</br></br>A host of advertisers are investing in the Underhand Chop and the Single Buck -- two kinds of ax throws -- as well as target shooting, fishing and bird-fetching by teams of dogs, all in the hopes of luring the American public and its disposable income outside.</br></br>The aforementioned contests are part of a new sports series titled "The Great Outdoor Games," slated for broadcast on Walt Disney Co.'s ESPN cable sports network July 20-23. And they represent just one of the methods being utilized to prod sports nuts back to nature.</br></br>"It's the next Nascar," crows Jason Klein, the president and chief executive officer of Times Mirror Magazines, the newly acquired unit of Tribune Co., that publishes outdoorsy periodicals such as Outdoor Life and Field & Stream. The magazines are a partner in the upcoming sports program.</br></br>With bass-fishing tournaments that feature boats decked out in corporate logos on the rise, his claim may be more than wishful thinking. This niche's consumers "are taken for granted," says Jake Wienert, an executive director at ESPN. And yet "the money spent in the industry flabbergasts me."