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In their quest to position the German automotive brand as, uh, something, Audi has decided to “invest” in the New York Yankees. Audi’s decision to back the Yanks may miff supporters of the 29 other Major League Baseball teams. But hey, those that own Audis could get a shot at seeing their team play the pin-striped perennial pennant winners in the newly re-christened Audi Yankees Club, a “premium entitlement area” perched high atop The House that Ruth Built. I thought it was baseball, apple pie and Chevrolet. Tempus fugit.
21 Comments on “Audi: Official Luxury Car of the New York Yankees...”
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And Ford is the official car of the Detroit Lions…
We saw how well that turned out this season…
Audi the official car of the Yankees? Thank God. Now I can sleep at night.
I was so afraid that with a team name like “Yankees” that they were going to do the freakin’ obvious and PICK SOMETHING AMERICAN~!
WTF indeed! The most well known team in baseball, “America’s pasttime”, selling out to a German automaker?!? Maybe Obama will get involved…
the yankees need an official car?
Dick Audi drivers and dick Yankee fans? A match made in heaven.
With Audi as their official car the Yankees are sure to be on fire this season.
ca36gtp : I resemble that remark, but I will take the high road and not slap you upside the face with mine.
Now look, would you all prefer the Yanks pulled a Mets maneuver, and sold out to Citibank? Could you think of a scummier deal…perhaps Madoff Field? I for one think the Yankees could use a little more class…and they smartly ditched Bank of America as a sponsor (mostly.) And baseball is hardly America’s pastime anymore – maybe blogging or texting is, but not playing baseball – increasingly, players are foreign-born and Americans only because they can play ball.
Granted, if youve ever been to the bronx and Yankee stadium, Audi isnt a brand that you would associate with most of the crowd there. Perhaps they could have just chosen the El Camino as the official car.
This will work very well for Audi when all of New England stops buying their cars.
That’s it! No more Yankees for me. From now on I am backing the Hamburg Hummers or the Manchester Malibus.
Makes sense. They’re a profitable franchise that puts the Yankees brand on everything from hats to lawn turf.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/22/sports/baseball/22grass.html
Note to Ingolstadt, most Americans hate the Yankees.
–chuck
Note to Ingolstadt, most Americans hate the Yankees.
It doesn’t matter so much when your target market is “the few, the proud, the c*cks”.
I thought it was baseball, apple pie and Chevrolet.
Funny how people get wrapped around the axle by that. In the old South Africa the line was:
Rugby, braaivleis, sunshine and Chevrolet
As American as my backside…
GM doesn’t have money so of course this makes sense. Pro teams need money too and this is how they get it. Gotta pay those million-dollar players, and the Yankee$ are the most expensive team out there if I remember right.
chuckgoolsbee:
But according to New Yorkers, Manhattan is the only part of America that means anything, if not the only part of the world that means anything. So with that, the entire world loves the Yankees!
Have no fear, Turbo G, I am sure Derek Jeter is still not giving up doing $$$ Ford commercials for the Yankees when everyone else is tooling around in their S8s.
http://www.jetersfordchallenge.com
As part of the Audi sponsorship deal the Yankees players will now have to refer to being on steroids as being “turbocharged”.
In their quest to position the German automotive brand as, uh, something, Audi has decided to “invest” in the New York Yankees. Audi’s decision to back the Yanks may miff supporters of the 29 other Major League Baseball teams. But hey, those that own Audis could get a shot at seeing their team play the pin-striped perennial pennant winners in the newly re-christened Audi Yankees Club, a “premium entitlement area” perched high atop The House that Ruth Built. I thought it was baseball, apple pie and Chevrolet. Tempus fugit.
Audi tries to position it as “something”?? Have I missed something? I thought GM was searching for a place for its brands? As far as I am aware, Audi has worked for 10 years to become a recognized luxury car brand. And it worked. So what was the point?
TireGuy
Can you please tell me how a German luxury car brand and baseball go together? As far as I’m aware, baseball is “all American,” a sport that’s supposed to appeal to ALL classes. Unlike, say, tennis (Mercedes-Benz). Or golf (Buick).
Drill down a bit deeper. How does a luxury brand and the Yankees go together?
As several of our commentators have pointed out, the Yankees are one of the least popular baseball teams (didn’t I just see an ad where a Yankees player celebrated his own vilification?).
In fact, Red Sox fans HATE the Yankees. What’s Audi’s logic for picking sides in that kind of long-standing enmity?
Most Americans hate the Yankees, and Audi drivers. It’s a marketing match made in Noo Yawk.
(Yes, I still want an A5.)
Robert,
point taken. But you started with “In their quest to position the German automotive brand as, uh, something, Audi has decided to “invest” in the New York Yankees.”
This basically implies that Audi has not yet positioned itself as a Luxury brand – which is certainly untrue for Germany, and I believe also untrue for the US. So, if you would make your point that what they are doing now is contrary to their existing positioning, your argument gets a direction.
On the other hand: it is quite normal that manufacturers associate themselved with certain teams, also for cars. In German Soccer, Opel was a partner of Bayern Munich – loved by half of the population, hated by the rest. VW is the natural sponsor of VfL Wolfsburg, which many people despise as a team only running on VWs sponsoring. Hyundai was a sponsor of Hamburg. You can go on forever.
Accordingly, I do not agree to the point that choosing to outfit one team makes the fans of all other teams stop buying your product. Marketing research has proven otherwise.
Can you please tell me how a German luxury car brand and baseball go together? As far as I’m aware, baseball is “all American,” a sport that’s supposed to appeal to ALL classes. Unlike, say, tennis (Mercedes-Benz). Or golf (Buick).
I can remember a few years ago when Toyota was the official car maker of the Chicago Cubs. Granted they aren’t luxury, but it isn’t an American car maker either. Did Cardinals fans and White Sox fans have a huge boycott of Toyota because of this? No. For the most part, the people who are going to know Audi is the official vehicle of the Yankees are likely to be Yankee fans themselves. A few fans of other teams may know this and avoid buying Audis, but it isn’t going to be wide-spread.
To take this a little further, and expand on TireGuy’s point, you have said many times you lived in England for a time, so you are probably familiar with English football/soccer. Do all supporters of Everton and Manchester United avoid drinking Carlsberg beer because they are the shirt sponsor of their biggest rival, Liverpool? A few might, but most won’t care. And the shirt sponsor is the much more visible than Audi’s deal with the Yankees.