{"id":46946,"date":"2012-02-06T08:14:19","date_gmt":"2012-02-06T13:14:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=46946"},"modified":"2012-02-06T08:14:19","modified_gmt":"2012-02-06T13:14:19","slug":"clint-eastwood-makes-chryslers-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2012\/02\/clint-eastwood-makes-chryslers-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Clint Eastwood Makes Chrysler\u2019s Day"},"content":{"rendered":"
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"It's halftime in America," declared actor Clint Eastwood in the latest Chrysler Super Bowl ad.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He didn\u2019t sell beer, corn chips or soft drinks, and he certainly wasn\u2019t aiming for laughs. But Clint Eastwood\u2019s unusual appearance in a Chrysler corporate Super Bowl commercial has become one of the widely watched game\u2019s most talked-about spots.<\/p>\n

The turn by the well-respected star marked the second year in a row that Chrysler focused as much or more on a social issue as on its own products with a long and costly commercial dubbed, \u201cIt\u2019s Halftime in America.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Tackling the News!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 2011, the resurgent automaker enlisted rapper Eminem to anchor a 2-minute commercial that focused specifically on Detroit, a city \u2013 and a domestic industry — long counted out by many Americans.\u00a0 For Super Bowl XLVI, the highly cinematic and equally lengthy Chrysler spot opens with an actor sometimes known as \u201cthe man with no name\u201d emerging from the shadows to address the troubled times the nation is now facing.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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The face of a young girl from the Clint Eastwood Chrysler commercial.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s halftime. Both teams are in their locker room discussing what they can do to win this game in the second half,\u201d Eastwood began \u2013 appropriately enough, as the spot marked the start of the third quarter of the annual football extravaganza.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s halftime in America, too. People are out of work and they\u2019re hurting. And they\u2019re all wondering what they\u2019re going to do to make a comeback. And we\u2019re all scared, because this isn\u2019t a game.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Missed it? Want to see the Clint Eastwood Chrysler ad again? <\/em>Click Here<\/span><\/a>.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The commercial made mention of Motown, Eastwood proclaiming, \u201cThe people of Detroit know a little something about this. They almost lost everything. But we all pulled together, now Motor City is fighting again.\u201d\u00a0 But the star notably failed to mention Chrysler by name and, unlike the 2011 Eminem spot, which focused on the launch of the maker\u2019s 200 sedan, there was no specific Chrysler product in the spotlight.<\/p>\n

In fact, one could argue that the message might as easily have been delivered by one of Chrysler\u2019s two Detroit rivals.<\/p>\n

\u201cDetroit\u2019s showing us it can be done. And, what\u2019s true about them is true about all of us,\u201d Eastwood concluded, \u201cThis country can\u2019t be knocked out with one punch. We get right back up again and when we do the world is going to hear the roar of our engines. Yeah, it\u2019s halftime America. And, our second half is about to begin.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Chrysler ad contrasted scenes from a troubled America with an uplifting message that might have emerged from the locker room.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Did the spot score?\u00a0 The results last year were mixed, the Eminem commercial clearly resonating in Motown and other worn-down industrial communities but generating less enthusiasm elsewhere according to traditional measures of advertising effectiveness.\u00a0 Yet, the 2-minute video was downloaded millions of times on Youtube and other outlets and was widely discussed long after most Super Bowl fans could no longer remember the beer and snack food spots.\u00a0 Perhaps only the \u201cDarth Vader\u201d spot for Volkswagen had more staying power.<\/p>\n

Notably both VW and Chrysler scored significant sales increases in the months following the big football game \u2013 while the social message was also widely referred to as a rallying cry in Detroit itself.<\/p>\n

As for Eastwood, will he make Chrysler\u2019s day? \u201cDogs are still a Super Bowl advertiser\u2019s best friend,\u201d declared USA Today, which hosts a widely followed panel following the many ads airing during the game \u2013 at a price tag of as much as $3 million for just 30 seconds of airtime.<\/p>\n

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Chrysler products appeared only briefly in the new commercial and were mentioned neither by name - nor in subtitles.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cBut for the first time in years, in a nation where unemployment still hovers above 8% and one still embroiled in two wars, a serious ad garnered serious attention,\u201d the publication proclaimed.\u00a0 Because the Eastwood spot aired during the halftime show and not during the game itself, however, the newspaper\u2019s panel did not issue a formal rating.<\/p>\n

But the buzz online was overwhelmingly, if not unanimously, positive.<\/p>\n

“Loved the Chrysler ad! 40 years of being a GREAT American actor trumps any political card,\u201d said Mike Caudill, in a Facebook posting. \u201cShoot I even had a mixed bag of Dems and Reps at the house for the game and the whole room got silent to pay attention. We all loved it!”<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Joseph Radding wrote, “The most successful advertising is based on authenticity and emotional connection. Clint, Chrysler, Detroit, halftime in America. Bravo. ”<\/p>\n

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Chrysler's partner brand, Fiat, turned to more traditional techniques - mixing lust and humor - to pitch the new Fiat 500 Abarth Edition.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chrysler didn\u2019t entirely ignore the more traditional advertising conventions using humor \u2013 and lust \u2013 to sell product.\u00a0 The maker also aired a shorter, 30-second spot for the new Fiat 500 Abarth Edition that features a young man fantasizing over one of the little cars, turning it into a beautiful woman in his mind.\u00a0 But even there, the maker took a risk, the dialogue entirely in Italian until the final tagline.<\/p>\n

The Eastwood spot reportedly received a roaring reception when first shown to Chrysler dealers who had gathered in Las Vegas, over the weekend, for the National Automobile Dealers Association convention.\u00a0 But other than on sites like YouTube, there\u2019s a strong chance Eastwood won\u2019t continue pitching for Chrysler \u2013 even in the form of social messaging.<\/p>\n

The 2011 Eminem ad had a limited run, the rapper used just once though footage from the shot \u2013 along with numerous outtakes and some of his music \u2013 were used in other Chrysler commercials throughout the following year.<\/p>\n

Chrysler executive Olivier Francois, who oversaw the creation of the Eminem spot, stressed that the maker does not plan to focus on celebrity endorsements and does not plan to use the same stars over and over again if there is a not a clear and direct \u201cconnection\u201d to the product.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

He didn\u2019t sell beer, corn chips or soft drinks, and he certainly wasn\u2019t aiming for laughs. But Clint Eastwood\u2019s unusual appearance in a Chrysler corporate Super Bowl commercial has become one of the widely watched game\u2019s most talked-about spots. More from TheDetroitBureau.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46947,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"make":[],"post-state":[],"category_old":[151],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46946"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46946"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=46946"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=46946"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=46946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}