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
The Hills Have Eyes (1977 film) of the individual theaters that it opened in. The film's gross was impeded by the financial success of the Burt Reynolds film "Smokey and the Bandit" (1977). Locke characterized the film as neither a huge hit nor a box office bomb, and was pleased with the amount of money it generated. The staff of "Variety" called "The Hills Have Eyes" "a satisfying piece of pulp," adding "Gratifying aspects [of the film] are Craven's businesslike plotting and pacy cutting, and a script which takes more trouble over the stock characters than it needs. There are plenty of laughs, in the dialog