Happy kid gets the ride of his life
Posted: Tuesday, April 07, 2009 11:51 PM
We get a lot of pitches from P.R. agencies trying to get free publicity for a product or company by connecting it to an athlete or athletic event. Usually, we pass. That’s what paid ads are for. But every so often, the P.R. campaign is so inspired, we feel obliged to give hard-working creative people the credit they deserve.
So here’s to Ask.com, which last week arranged for a Texas schoolboy to have the thrill of a lifetime: NASCAR star Bobby Labonte drove him to school in a decaled car that looked very much like Labonte’s Ford Fusion race car. Afterwards, Labonte joined the boy, John Gregoriou, in an assembly where he and Ask.com presented the school with $10,000 worth of computers.
After Labonte did his bit to make one boy’s golden memory, he did a round of phone interviews. When my turn came, I asked him where this promotion ranked among the many things his contract calls on him to do for his sponsor.
“It ranks up there pretty high,” he said. “It makes you think of things you did when you were young – when a famous person came to your school.”
Labonte actually ate breakfast with Gregoriou, then drove him to school along his bus route. The car with its payload of decals drew a lot of attention. “People were looking at it like, ‘What the heck’s that guy doing?’ ” he said.
Labonte’s a man of few words, but he said that giving a kid a thrill and donating much-needed computer equipment to a school “puts things in a pretty big perspective. A lot of people get caught up in doing things more for themselves. It’s nice to be able to do things for a group of people. I’m a small part of it.”
Gregoriou won the ride by writing an essay on Internet safety. The computer presentation involved an assembly where that was the theme.
It wasn’t the biggest event in the world, and $10,000 isn’t the biggest donation to a school. But it’s part of a bigger program called Ask.com Safe Search Schools, whose goal is to promote Internet safety. This specific event was done in partnership with Web Wise Kids, a national non-profit organization that is “dedicated to empowering today's youth to make wise choices online through easy-to-use, school-approved Internet safety education programs for young people.” Ask.com contributed both Labonte and the computers to the program. You add up a lot of small contributions, and it begins to make a difference. It’s also a reminder that corporations do a lot of good things – and so do athletes.
Gregoriou was so overcome with excitement that he had to take the rest of the day off. The sponsors provided a statement from the boy: “Pulling up to the school in the Ask.com car was awesome because all my friends were outside yelling and waving to me,” said Gregoriou. “But they really went crazy later when I told them I actually ate breakfast with Bobby and my name was on the car.”
Added Labonte, “It’s a situation where you just see smiles. Seeing that makes it all worthwhile.”
