There’s something to be said for zigging when most everyone else is zagging. As a preponderance of Super Bowl advertisers leaked their spots online before the Big Game–and at times to positive effect as they generated buzz and ambassadors for their work–Chrysler continued to keep its ad menu under wraps until the telecast itself.
This has proven to be a winning strategy for the automaker in past years with a pair of notable two-minute ads from Wieden+Kennedy, Portland, Ore.–first Eminem’s “Born of Fire” directed by Samuel Bayer via Serial Pictures (he has since returned to HSI); and then the Clint Eastwood-starring “It’s Halftime in America” directed by David Gordon Green of Chelsea. “Born of Fire” won the primetime commercial Emmy Award in 2011, and “It’s Halftime in America” was nominated for the same honor the next year. Both earned overwhelmingly positive feedback both in the immediate aftermath of the Super Bowl and then further down the line during awards season.
Now the two-minute, patriotic, all-in-broadcast debut approach has again been adopted by Chrysler this evening as Bob Dylan headlined “America’s Import,” this time from agency Global Hue in Southfield, Mich. Initial response has been positive to this anthem to Detroit and American automotive ingenuity. As Motor City imagery, U.S. highways, attractions and stock footage of iconic personalities such as Dylan himself, James Dean and Marilyn Monroe appear, we also see and hear Dylan today as he walks through city streets, noting that “Detroit made cars” and “cars made America.” He notes that “you can’t import an original…You can’t duplicate legacy. And when it is made here, it is made with the one thing that you can’t import from anywhere else: American pride.”
Dylan goes on to affirm, ““Let Germany brew your beer, let Switzerland assemble your watch, let Asia assemble your phone. We will build your car.”
However, there is some criticism this time around as the commercial comes just weeks after Italian automotive company Fiat became owner of Chrysler. Still, Chrysler employs tens of thousands in the U.S. so it will be interesting to see how the marketplace receives this latest homage to the Motor City.
Radio Shack
Holding back from going online with spots prior to the Super Bowl may be the exception to the rule but Chrysler didn’t go this route alone. Another advertiser to notably premiere its Super Bowl spot during the Big Game telecast was Radio Shack with “The Phone Call” directed by Frank Todaro of Moxie Pictures for GSD&M in Austin, Texas. The spot thrusts us into a typical Radio Shack when the phone rings and the clerk/associate behind the counter answers. It turns out it was the 1980s calling and they “want their store back.” A series of 1980s icons then descends upon the store and dismantle it–they include Hulk Hogan, Erik Estrada of CHIPS fame, the evil Chucky Doll, the California Raisins, mailman Cliff Clavin from Cheers, even Alf. The store is overhauled to reveal a sleek contemporary place with the latest in state-of-the-art technology.
“The Phone Call” and “America’s Import” figure to be among the spots that will be addressed by creatives in SHOOT’s Super Bowl survey. SHOOT will sound out creative artisans whose agencies did not have any commercials on this year’s Super Bowl so as to get an unvarnished, apolitical assessment of the advertising. So stay tuned. This feedback coverage is slated to debut here come late Monday.
