I've never received so many texts about a commercial before:
My only question is about the symbolism of the choir singing to no one in the empty theatre while Eminem says, "This is the Motor City: this is what we do." What is what we do? Make cars, make music, make art? What are they trying to say?
well, chrysler i s owned by fiat.
ReplyDeleteand the commercial is saying thats a luxury car. youre looking too into it.
yeah when the commercial came on, Tina literally asked me that. "what do they do?" It didn't really make a lot of sense.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading some of your blog, the "Imported from Detroit" line is very interesting. Obviously Detroit has become a symbol of something different, whether it's failure or struggle or hardship, Detroit is now "other" to the rest of the country. This commercial played that up with it's "imported" line.
it was prolly the least confusing thing in the world to me. maybe i like cars too much.
ReplyDeletedetroit is def. other. which is neat that fiat knows this, well their ad team does at least.
I loved the ad. Didn't think it was confusing. Working on a longer response of my thoughts. I'm sure you are all dying of anticipation
ReplyDeleteFull Text:
ReplyDeleteI got a question for you. What does this city know about luxury, what does a town that's been to hell and back know about the finer things in life? Well I'll tell ya. More than most. You see, it's the hottest fires that make the hardest steel. Add hard work and conviction - and the know-how that runs generations deep in every last one of us. That's who we are. That's our story.
It's probably not the one you've read in the papers. The one written by people who've never even been here. Who don't know what we're capable of.
Because when it comes to luxury it's as much about where it's from as who it's for.
Now we're from America. But this isn't New York City, or the Windy City, or Sin City, and we're certainly no ones Emerald City.
This is the Motor City. And this is what we do.
I don't know. I think you are reading a little too much into the appearance of the quoir. I think it's just there to ad some artistry. Sort of a contrast to the roughness of the voiceover and then Eminem.
To me the implication isn't muddled that much by having them there. But then, I'm so biased towards the ad that I might not be a person to trust.
It's interesting because quite a while ago I was in a meeting with some auto executives. It was ostensibly to be about vehicle electrification issues. But the topic of branding came up.
They talked about how one of the many (i'm editorializing here) failings of the auto industry was how it let the luxury car market get away with them. This was in part because for a while quality suffered across all models for the domestic automakers. Something they would admit. But for much of the last decade (maybe more) Ford and GM have been rated right there with Toyota, Honda, etc. Chrysler was a little slower to regroup, but even they had made strides to the point that the difference wasn't that great. The problem was that there was still a gap between their improved performance and public perception. They have been working furiously the last few years to close that, and doing it successfully.
But there was still another perception problem. Basically it was no longer "cool" to own a U.S. car. This doesn't have as much of an impact with standard cars. Consumers are much more likely to make their decision based on price, functionality, quality, etc at that level.
But people who are buying luxury cars are doing it both because they want a really nice car, but they are much more likely to be doing it because it's a status symbol.
For years, like when our parents were growing up, driving a Cadillac was a statement. It meant you had arrived to a certain level of wealth and sophistication. To a lesser extent that was true of Lincoln too, though even the most diehard Ford fan would probably admit that Lincoln never has never had the same connotation that Cadillac has.
We were a little bit insulated from this because we grew up in Michigan, where the Big 3 have always had more of a cache, but in the rest of the country, the concept of what cars were cool changed. Cadillac was usurped by Mercedes, Lexus, and BMW.
This was all about trying to rebrand Detroit. It was trying to sell the implication that if you buy a car that was made in a rugged city, by gritty, tough people, it in some way makes you more rugged, grittier, tougher, cooler. When you type that out or read it, it seems kind of rediculous. But in an advertisement like that I think it's brilliant.
Does it work? I don't know. I did see that "Chrysler 200" and related searches were trending on google only behind things like "Green bay Packers" and "Aaron Rodgers" and things like that directly related to the game.
whoa formating got kinda messed up. sorry about that
ReplyDeleteLoved this guy's somewhat overly melodramatic take too: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2011/02/super-bowl-ad-tracker-chrysler-eminem-proclaim-detroit-is-still-alive.html
ReplyDeleteExcerpt:
"In a way, it's also more than a message about Detroit. As BMW also showed in an ad featuring the plant making its X3 model, it's honoring a time when America was about making things -- real, hulking tangible pieces of machinery. It stood in contrast to the rest of the ads for things we click on, things made far, far away, things created by people sitting behind a desk (not that there's anything wrong with that)."
I don't even know if that commercial is going to sell Chryslers. I definitely don't think it's going to solve the problem of the loss of manufacturing in America. But that is definitely an issue for another day. I'm done till somebody else posts.
Great stuff TS.
ReplyDeleteOne thing about this perception issue (not sure the ad will make a dent in this, but it won't hurt) is that it can change and change quickly. Americans have no memory. Adam Carolla makes the point all the time that Audi use to be a punchline in the auto industry and now they're arguably the best all-around manufacturer in the game. So if you keep making good products and marketing them well, people will buy them. They'll become cool.