• by Karl Greenberg , February 8, 2016

To celebrate the National Park Service centennial and to support its sponsorship of the National Park Foundation, Subaru is unveiling a TV ad “Who We Are Is What We Leave Behind.” And the automaker is sponsoring a year-long segment series about America’s national parks on “CBS Sunday Morning.”

The message of the TV ad is Subaru’s zero landfill initiative supporting the reduction of waste going into landfills. The spot shows mountains of garbage, representing the amount of trash dumped into national parks each year, and then real mountains in a pristine park.

The sponsored in-show segment series, "On the Trail” has host Conor Knighton driving a Subaru, traversing American bucolic wonders, and revealing facts and stories about each park. The segments will be approximately two to three minutes in length and will air during the show every two weeks.

Brian Cavallucci, Subaru’s national advertising manager, tells Marketing Daily that, on the one hand, the automaker is involved in a zero landfill pilot program with three parks, and on the other, that “CBS Sunday Morning” had been developing the series of reports on the National Park Service to coincide with its centennial on Aug. 25 this year. “When CBS approached us, it seemed like a natural fit for Subaru to become the sponsor of the series.”

He adds that the campaign will be supported by a strong digital plan, and that Knighton will be driving a Subaru Outback. While Carmichael Lynch and media buying firm BPN, were involved in helping to secure the partnership, Cavallucci says neither Subaru nor its agencies dabbled with the content of the shows, beyond having the Outback as Knighton’s chariot.

“One thing that was absolutely clear throughout our discussions is that ‘CBS Sunday Morning’ has total editorial control in terms of what is reported,” he says. “We would never encroach in that area. Our primary reason for this sponsorship partnership with CBS is to call attention to our zero landfill project with the national parks, and to make people aware of the waste problem Subaru and the parks are trying to help fix.”