The most memorable ad during Sunday’s Super Bowl — Chrysler’s two-minute spot featuring rap star Eminem — was a gut-wrenching decision for the carmaker’s chief executive Sergio Marchionne.
“This was not an easy choice…apart from the money involved…and this is pretty expensive stuff, but you know, the choice of the topic, the choice of the characters in the thing were not easy choices. I had to think about this really long and hard,” Marchionne said. Why? I asked him. “You know, I love Eminem but …I also know that some of the choices of language that he has made are things that are not what I would consider to be commonly shared,” he said, trying to be delicate about the rapper’s hard-core lyrics and profanity.
But the Italian-born Marchionne, who grew up in Canada and spent two years living across the river from Detroit, in Windsor, Ontario (Canada’s car capital), understands the gritty determination of the Motor City better than any politician in Washington or talk show host in Los Angeles or New York. The ad, he believes, addresses the lingering prejudices against domestic cars and the companies that produce them. “A lot of people are underestimating what happened here,” he said, a reference to the hell-and-back bankruptcy and restructuring of the U.S. auto industry. “The great thing about this country, it has the ability to learn.”
Eminem, one of Detroit’s most famous residents, gets it, Marchionne said. “He represents part of America that I think is important as hell. I think it’s at the heart of what we are.” OK, not everyone likes the rapper’s music, Marchionne conceded, “but a lot of what he is is us, you know? I mean there’s sort of a seriousness about that kid that is – I call him a kid. I mean, he’s not a kid anymore – which is true of us. The fact that we’re coming out of nowhere, right? …A lot of people last year asked us, you know, are you still going to be here in 12 months? The only thing that held back the execution squad from shooting Chrysler was me.”
And so Marchionne, whose Fiat Autos stepped in to run Chrysler after it emerged from bankruptcy in 2009, decided to tell the world, on the biggest night of television, that Chrysler is not only still alive, but proudly turning itself around. In the past year, Chrysler has introduced 16 new or significantly upgraded vehicles that have managed to turn the minds of even the toughest automotive reviewers, many of whom have said they are surprised at how much Chrysler vehicles have improved in such a short time.
Marchionne kept the contents of the ad a secret even from his own management team until a meeting last Monday when he showed it to them in the conference room across the hall from his office, where a framed Dodge poster offers the rallying cry, “Give a shit.” Some of his execs were almost moved to tears, he said. “I think we blew them away. I don’t think that anybody expected this.”
The spot by Wieden+Kennedy is the first two-minute Super Bowl commercial in history, which is notable in itself. But aside from the cute Darth Vader kid in the Volkswagen ad, nothing from the eight other car brands (or from Bridgestone, CarMax or cars.com, for that matter) who advertised during the big game could touch Chrysler’s goosebump-inducing message.
The ad shows gritty, everyday pictures of Detroit and Detroiters, as the voiceover says: “I got a question for you. What does this city know about luxury, huh? 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 a know-how that runs generations deep in every last one of us. That’s who we are. That’s our story. Now it’s probably not the one you been reading in the papers. The one written by folks who’ve never even been here, and 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 one’s Emerald City.” At that point, Eminem drives up in front of Detroit’s historic Fox Theatre in a new Chrysler 200. Inside, he walks on stage where a gospel choir is singing, and then turns to the camera with that serious, almost angry look of his and says, “This is the Motor City. This is what we do.” It’s followed by Chrysler’s new tagline, “Imported from Detroit.”
Chrysler’s marketing chief Olivier Francois, says the new tagline was intended to convey the message that you don’t have to cross an ocean to obtain luxury; it’s available right here. The brand chose Eminem and his song “Lose Yourself,” Francois says, “because the lyrics tell us we all have the ability to do anything we set our mind to and that failure is not an option.” At Chrysler, he said, failure is not an option.
I got a sneak peek of the ad a week ago when I sat down with Marchionne to talk about the progress Chrysler is making and the difficult challenges that still lie ahead. In the middle of our conversation, he stopped and swore me to secrecy–it turns out Eminem hadn’t approved the ad yet. Then he pulled a USB flash drive out of his jeans pocket and plugged it into the laptop on the conference room table. With a few keystrokes, he projected the ad on the giant screen at the far end of the room. Other than Chrysler’s management team, which had seen it for the first time a few hours earlier that day, I was the first person to view it.
I, too, was blown away by the imagery and the message. As a transplanted East Coaster who made Detroit my adopted hometown 25 years ago, I can say with confidence: This is exactly how Detroiters feel. And since its airing during Sunday night’s game, it’s the only thing people in Detroit are talking about today.
What about outside Detroit? Will it change any of the negative perceptions about domestic cars or erase any of the hostility toward Chrysler and General Motors after their taxpayer bailouts? That remains to be seen. If so, I think GM ought to pay royalties to Chrysler.
But here’s my biggest problem with the ad: It chose to highlight the new Chrysler 200 in an ad that talks about the perception of luxury. The Chrysler 200 is a replacement for the Chrysler Sebring, a car that never was and (even with a new name) never will be mistaken for a luxury car. Priced at $20,000 to $25,000, it competes in the thick of one of the most cutthroat segments of the market: mid-sized sedans. At least now, with the vast improvements to the car, including a new interior, engine and suspension, it can get in the game.
Perhaps Chrysler knew it would be a stretch for people to consider the 200 a luxury car. Maybe all the company can hope for is that Americans stop trash-talking their own country’s cars. That must be why it’s including this line in other ads: “A car you don’t have to own to be proud of.”
Selling pride is fine. But if Chrysler is going to survive, it has to sell cars.
