KOLBER Lands Advertising Job

(From The USA Today -- By Michael Hiestand)

Another sign of progress for women in sportscasting -- ESPN's SUZY KOLBER is hawking CHEVROLETS.

For male sportscasters, getting TV ads has long been a symbol of having arrived, with the truly elite -- think MADDEN, BRADSHAW, VITALE -- liable to pop up selling almost anything.

Kolber is in new CHEVY ads, which might run for a year in the Northeast and have spread to other regions, and recently did a national PEPSI ad.

It's not unprecedented for female sportscasters to get ads -- LESLEY VISSER touted DEXATRIM in the mid-1990s while her then-ABC colleague DAN DIERDORF touted ULTRA SLIMFAST.

As Kolber notes, "Having this stuff finally happening shows you are being recognized."

Chevy, she says, "recognized my credibility. And isn't that the biggest thing when you get someone for a product?"

Kolber is a reporter at ESPN. Next year, she'll be a sideline reporter on NFL games that ESPN will pay $1.1 billion annually to cover.

ESPN reviews TV ad scripts before allowing their on-air stars to do them.

Kolber doesn't see any worries about hyping potential ESPN sponsors -- "That's just the way society is with product placement. We're tied into so many things. I let ESPN decide for me."

So, Suzy, how's your CHEVY?

"Right now, I'm speaking to you from my VOLVO," she said Thursday. "But I'd be thrilled to drive a CORVETTE.
A convertible. Blue."

CHEVY marketing manager DAVID KLEMM -- who says Kolber was cast not so much for her celebrity but because she "seems credible" and "we just like how she appears" -- hears the hint -- "If that's what it takes, we'll talk to her."