• June 6, 2013

Acura is hitting the open mike as sole sponsor of "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee." Seinfeld lovers will probably have seen the web series, which began last July. For those who haven't, the series basically has Seinfeld driving around with actors, celebs, and the like having car conversations, which in New York means a lot of cursing. The show, on video entertainment web channel Crackle (a unit of Sony's Embassy Row) and www.ComediansInCarsGettingCoffee.com, first premiered last summer. Acura says it will sponsor 24 new episodes to be released this year and in 2014.

Seinfeld, if you remember, was in the Acura Super Bowl commercial last year with Jay Leno in a spot that had Seinfeld desperately trying to get a guy to give up on the NSX supercar Seinfeld (a real-life car guy) saw in a showroom.

Since it's sole sponsor for the web series Acura owns the bookend real estate for the entire slate of 24 episodes: the Honda Motor luxury brand will run short, "contextually relevant" ads at the beginning and end of each episode. The focus, says the automaker, will be the new Acura MDX.

In a statement Seinfeld, who is executive producer of the show, said, with some unavoidable cheekiness, "Not everyone understood what we were doing. But like Moe Green who invented Las Vegas, Acura is a company of vision and guts." The deal was brokered by Seinfeld's agent, CAA.

"We love Jerry's unconventional, fan-first approach of creating great content and trusting that the right people will find it," said Mike Accavitti, Acura senior VP of auto operations, in the release. "It is totally consistent with Acura's organic approach of putting the customer first and building the vehicle around them."
Seinfeld got a Webby Award for the show. The release on the show says Seinfeld will interview David Letterman, Sarah Silverman, Chris Rock and Don Rickles.