Chrysler made a bit of pop culture history earlier this year when it managed to cast a 2020 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon in a Super Bowl spot that resurrected Groundhog Day, the 1993 cult favorite in which TV weatherman Phil Connors (Bill Murray) finds himself living the same day over and over. The spot wasn’t just…
Carmakers are incorporating at-home delivery into their sales pitches in an effort to keep car buyers interested, a shift expedited by the Covid-19 pandemic and resulting restrictions keeping customers away from dealerships. While none of this marks a seismic shift in the auto purchase journey, the rise in online car shopping could signal the future…
Burger King’s marketing team never misses a chance to jump on a hot trend, especially in technology. Case in point: The brand is launching a Whopper giveaway linked to automotive artificial intelligence, which “knows what you crave,” according to BK’s new ad campaign launching today and coming on the heels of the restaurant’s recent dance-based…
Ford Motor Company executive chairman Bill Ford and CEO Jim Hackett sent a letter Monday to their employees addressing the “tragic killing of George Floyd” and promising more open dialogue surrounding racism. In the letter, Ford and Hackett denounce the recent deaths of Black Americans at the hands of the police, including Floyd and Breonna…
It feels like years ago, but it was only Jan. 26 when Paul Miller Racing’s car No. 48–a Lamborghini Hurac?n GT3 EVO–took the checkered flag at the Rolex 24 at Daytona, holding the lead for 340 of the race’s 765 laps. It was a thrilling dash if you happened to be there. But fans who…
Thirty-five million Americans have never left the state in which they were born–and as the Covid-19 pandemic continues to suppress travel across the country, that number likely won’t drop in the near future. But in a show of aspirational advertising, Hyundai is helping some of those 35 million Americans cross their state lines in a…
Mini has become the latest brand to shift its marketing beyond lockdown with a series of short films to mark the restarting of production at plant in Oxford, southern England. The British car brand, which had to close its factories due to the coronavirus lockdown in the U.K., has released a series of 30-, 20-…
Although there’s present tension in America’s auto manufacturing industry, most companies have started to schedule workers to return to its factories. Ford is reopening in phases–it’s scheduled to open its doors on Monday–and has launched a campaign aimed for network television to remind everyone what its been doing since the outbreak of Covid-19. Created by…
Following the mandated shutdowns due to Covid-19, the auto industry’s spending on television advertising fell between 55% and 70% in late March and April of this year, according to iSpot, a company that tracks national TV ads and correlates digital responses. The shutdown is a direct cause of the sudden decrease: Between March 12 and…
Buying a luxury car is a huge commitment, and despite the trope of the middle-age crisis Mustang or Mercedes, it is not often an impulse purchase. For many consumers, the desire to own a luxury car starts with posters on a childhood bedroom wall, and car brands have focused on reaching young customers nowhere close…
Italian automaker Fiat, which was founded in Turin in 1899, and U.S. automaker Chrysler, which was established in 1925 in Detroit, first joined forces in 2009 after the latter received a government bailout to stay afloat. Five years later, Fiat acquired a 100% stake and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) was born. Now, in what is…
Eighty-two years ago, the citizens of Germany were told about a new car whose reliability and affordability would put it within reach for most middle-class families. “It is for the broad masses that this car has been built,” they were told. The speaker was Adolph Hitler. And the car for the masses? Volkswagen. World War…
The latest figures for just about any industry are grim as the next phases of the COVID-19 pandemic become more apparent. No sector is emerging unscathed, and the automotive category is acutely exposed as people stay home and away from showrooms. Every auto manufacturer is seeing sharp first-quarter sales drops, with Fiat Chrysler tumbling 10%…
Audi in Russia has turned its logo red and yellow in a sign of solidarity with healthcare workers on the front lines of fighting COVID-19. Leo Burnett Moscow, which developed the creative concept, said the colors reflect a visual policy being used to identify staff at Moscow’s largest COVID-19 hospital in the Kommunarka district. There,…
As the coronavirus crisis continues to unfold across the United States, automakers Toyota and Hyundai have rolled out new messaging, with the latter reintroducing a version of its buyer protection program popularized during the economic crisis in 2009. This follows Ford’s pivot, pulling more traditional, showroom traffic-driving ads and replacing them with consumer aid-centric messaging….
In the 2011 HBO drama Too Big to Fail, Paul Giamatti played Ben Bernanke, chair of the Federal Reserve. While the world economy was crumbling, Bernanke was portrayed as a steady, reasonable presence in the face of chaos. The restraint in Giamatti’s performance was a slight departure for the lauded character actor, who oozes a…
Jeep’s Groundhog Day spot with Bill Murray was undoubtedly one of the best ads of Super Bowl 54, topping both Adweek’s list of the 10 Best Super Bowl Ads of 2020 and USA Today’s annual Ad Meter. But the last-minute production could easily have never aired as Fox sold out of ad inventory in November…
When almost every car commercial in Super Bowl 54 featured a celebrity saving the day, revisited a classic character or that song that won’t get out of your head, it can be hard for a brand to stand out among its competitors, let alone every other product shilling during the game. But, according to the…
Toyota has made a habit of telling strong stories in its Super Bowl advertising, with a dash of heroism and inspiration for good measure. Two years ago, the automaker and its longstanding agency Saatchi & Saatchi told the compelling story of eight-time Paralympic gold medalist Lauren Woolstencroft. Last year, the brand and agency partnered with…
For the second year running, Kia has decided to shelve the tactics that car brands so often employ in their Super Bowl ads–celebrity endorsers, stunt drivers, adolescent-grade humor–in favor of a sober and provocative message. Released today, Kia’s spot for the Big Game pretty much leaves aside everything you’d associate with a car and instead…
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