Driver Bubba Wallace could be the most "polarizing figure in NASCAR," and in a new for Root Insurance, the brand "embraces that dynamic unapologetically." Created by Tool of North America and director Wesley Walker, the ad is a "dark portrait of Wallace, working out and racing in the rain, punctuated by a cacophony of media questions, flashes of a noose and a Confederate flag, references to President Trump’s tweet about him, and a raging crowd holding up 'apologize' signs." Then viewers "see a young Black fan watching the racer with admiration." Wallace ignores the "cackled questioning and the mics shoved in his face as he walks away, and the ad fades to the tagline, 'Progress Owes No Apology'" (FASTCOMPANY.com, 10/23).
Walker said, "What people do not know is what it feels like experientially to walk this path and what it takes to stand for what is right against such intense resistance." He added, "We did this by blurring the lines between narrative cinema and vérité documentary styles -- moments of pressure that give us the payoff and context to Bubba’s unwillingness to apologize for something he did not do. The power of Bubba Wallace’s story is that he is standing for change and standing for what is right" (ADWEEK.com, 10/23).
