Seems like there's an inordinate amount of Lance Armstrong commercials, huh? More than I remember ever seeing before.

Now, I'm not a hater of LA... nor do I think that the suns rises and sets on him either. I think he is great for US cycling. But wow, his exposure seems a bit over the top, to me. I realize that dominant sports figures do a lot of endorsements, and commercials. I don't recall seeing it at this level before, certainly in cycling! (disclaimer: I don't watch a lot of the typical American sports: baseball - seldom / football - more than baseball / basketball - zero)

Discuss.

I'm going to guess those ads exist, and in the number they exist, because those corporations feel having them in those spots will help them sell more products--and thus they purchased the air time necessary.

No ads in the Versus internet stream.

Would you rather see Smiling Bob from Enzite at every commercial break?

It's just that broadcasters will couple ads dealing with the event being watched. You think any of these other guys are in more than one cycling ad? Probably not. Whichever ONE ad these other guys are in, is also played, but next to the 35 Lance ads who's noticing? Phil Mickelson was still shooting ads for the past 15 years, but I've never noticed any golf ad other than Tiger until about 3 months ago.

wait until you see the ads on eurosport. it has a rotation consisting of alberto's endorsement of sidi, alberto's endorsement of selle italia, pippo's endorsement of sidi, some rifling ad, tyler farrar's endorsement of transition lenses, an ad for traveling to europe, and that's pretty much it.

I d@mn near spat out my Gatorade...

TDF is a much more focused target audience than the other sports you mention. Average Joe American isn't going to be casually tuning in to watch a sprinter's stage at 8:30am EST. Cycling fans and enthusiasts will. So you're going to get pretty much nothing but cycling related commercials or endorsements by cyclists.

Let's make you a marketing director. People watching on VS are Americans. So you're going to want an American endorser. And nobody outside of the sport's enthusiasts know who Levi Leipheimer or Tyler Farrar are, George Hincapie may be slightly less obscure. But Lance? Everybody knows him even if they've never seen a cycling event or Sports Center in their life. Maybe Lance is a little more expensive to get, but now your commercial can be used for more applications outside of running during the TDF (mmmm, Michelob Ultra) so you can spread out the product costs.

It's more Lance overkill than usual because he's on an American team with a consumer product retailer corporate sponsor. So they're going to ***** him out as much as possible.

I watch the Canadian feed on OLN (who steals the feed from versus) - If I see another cervelo ad I'm going to shoot myself.

Although I really like the one Lance ad (riding alone with all the cancer survivor voices) - I find that one very touching.

I see Radio Shack, Michelob, Nike, and Nissan ads. Where is this ad promoting Lance?

He's a spokesperson, and it's a targeted market. Duh.



I think the Radio Shack ads should go to other slots, they're kinda funny. I actually enjoy their humor.

Ads?! I like ffwd instead..

But yes I've seen his face for a split-second now and then when speeding through the commercials.

What I really hate are the Caddy ads... worst music evar.

All I know is now I feel fat and guilty every time I fill my cereal bowl up all the way with milk.

I want to know why there were three full-length commercial breaks during the "Nissan commercial-free half hour" at the end of stage 9.

Lance is marketable now. He won't be marketable forever. (And, if the DOJ has their way, he'll be anti-marketable at some point.) The advertisers are making the most of his availability.

And Lance is making mega-bucks while the window of opportunity is still open. Sell-out? Yeah. Probably. But also just smart business. Anyone here would do the same.

(But I'll admit, the Nissan ad showing Lance with the slogan "discover the science behind legendary performance" makes me a little uncomfortable. WHO on Lance's staff approved THAT one? Good thing Amgen didn't want to run it!)

I hate the Cadillac commercials so much. Who chose that music? They used to have Led Zeppelin! Now they have "Are you going to call me? When I am calling empanadas(**********?)" I don't even have the words to express how much I don't like those commercials.

EDIT: AY YEA YEA YEA YEA.

Commercial TV is a real pain to watch. It seems like there are more commercials than program time. A lot of times I will DVR the program and FF through the commercials just to make it a little more tolerable to watch.

All my 6 year old wants to know is how is Lance doing, where is Lance, is that Lance???

I'd think you could say the same for the rest of the non-enthusiast audience.

You're missing the travel to Brazil ad, although I didn't see that one until today.

Get off my bike Alphonse!

I grew up with a VCR, but no cable. To me commercials in their natural state are just something you fast forward through. It's so frustrating to go backwards like this.

You mean that guy in the beer commercials is a professional bike racer? Huh. I did not know that.

We all hate ads but I do laugh when the one Radio Shack ad comes on with the fat guy on Lances bike on the trainer...

they're throwing wine and soft cheeses as is the custom.

I like the ads, but you have to put yourself into Christopher Guest mode to really get them. Lance does a great job IMHO.

I really know that cycling is moving up the marketing food chain now that mail order art schools are targeting us.

Jeez to think how expensive VS. ad spots are! The Art School of Some Brick Building Somewhere is really going all out to recruit us. You think maybe they have a bike team? You think I could maybe get a scholarship?