No changes will be made to the "risqué outfits worn by Monster Energy models at NASCAR races this year despite some criticism voiced on social media by fans" after Sunday's Advance Auto Parts Clash at Daytona, according to Darren Rovell of ESPN.com. Monster Energy VP/Sports Marketing Mitch Covington said that the outfits are a "fabric of what the company does at events it sponsors on site." Covington: "Monster has always been about racing and girls, and that won't change." Rovell noted Monster models in tank tops "will be front and center, replacing Sprint models who wore firesuits in Victory Lane after a race." Covington said that he has had "no discussion with NASCAR officials about changing the outfits and doesn't expect to." Covington would "not say how many models the energy drink brand would have at each race." But he said that there will be "more than the four that showed up last week" as compared to Sunday's Daytona 500. Covington said that the brand "contracts as many as 100 women at any given time to represent the Monster Energy logos" (ESPN.com, 2/22). In Tennessee, Allen Gregory writes the reactions on social media to the Monster Energy girls was the "hottest story of last weekend" at DIS. Fans were "peeved by the 'revealing' leather attire" of the models. But for weeks, many of these same critics "welcomed Monster Energy as exactly the edgy title sponsor NASCAR needed to attract younger viewers." One has to "wonder where all these judges of good taste and public values where when Danica Patrick starred in a series of sexually tinged commercials" for GoDaddy (BRISTOL HERALD COURIER, 2/23).
MAKE UP YOUR MIND: The AP's Dan Gelston noted Monster Energy during yesterday's Daytona 500 Media Day "tried to poke fun at its NASCAR debut by having its sponsorship girls read a series of mean tweets." However, the company is "aware that its brand hasn't yet saturated the sport" at Daytona Int'l Speedway ahead of Sunday's race. Other than the Monster Energy girls, there has been "little promotion by the company." Monster "isn't selling drinks at concession stands, and there are no ads spread around the track" (AP, 2/22).
