Smokey and the Bandit petroleum company Mobil 1 produced television commercials, featuring NASCAR star Tony Stewart, closely based on the film. Called "Smoke is the Bandit" playing on Stewart's nickname, the commercials featured him as the Bandit opposite Darrell Waltrip who played Snowman and Jeff Hammond as Buford T. Justice. The story replaced the Coors beer with Mobil 1 products. The adverts poked fun at the film and even featured a Pontiac Trans Am and a cover version of the song "East Bound and Down". The commercials were produced after Stewart mentioned that the movie was one of his favorites. When "Smokey and the
Hooper (film) office; it was one of the top ten films of 1978, but ultimately the film was deemed a letdown in comparison to Reynolds' "Smokey and the Bandit", second only to "Star Wars" in box office gross the year before. "Hooper" grossed $78 million domestically, nearly 40% less than the gross of "Smokey" in 1977 ($126 million). The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Sound (Robert Knudson, Robert Glass, Don MacDougall and Jack Solomon). "Hooper" was also one of the first movies to make use of the blooper reel credit crawl. The technique, originated by Needham, showed a