Brands: Dodge, Chrysler, Jeep (DaimlerChrysler)
Execution: TV, Web
Link: Click Here
Target: Science-minded car buyers
Rating: *
Reviewer: David

Description:
A series of TV spots featuring Dr. Dieter Zetsche, the current Chairman of DaimlerChrysler. The spots show Dr. Z seriously answering questions about American car brands Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge. The spots poke fun at Dr. Z (in one spot a rough working-class director fumes “actors” when Dr. Z misses a line) in a good-natured manner.

What Works:
It’s good that Dr. Zetsche appears to have a sense of humor and passion for the brands Daimler aquired during the supposed ‘merger of equals’ between Daimler-Benz (the maker of Mercedes-Benz automobiles) and Chrysler. The brands are featured prominently and - for better or worse - this is ownable advertising that competitors are unlikely to copy.

What Doesn’t:
Steve Miller at BrandWeek noted last week that Chrysler will continue this campaign, which broke in July, through the end of the year. While there is little great or awful enough in this campaign to merit comment, this advertising blog feels that the use of Chrysler Chairman Dr. Dieter Zetsche as the spokesmodel for the campaign raises a relevant and interesting question. Namely, when should the CEO or Chairperson of a company front the advertising.

Our answer is “never.” Why not? After all, companies like Wendy’s built their franchise with personal messages from Dave Thomas. And the CEO often has the most to gain or lose from the success or failure of the company. If these men and women have both a track record and a stake in the outcome, why shouldn’t they speak directly to the cameras?

Because there is nobody to tell them when the result is awful, as it is in this case. Is the ad agency going to tell the Chairman of one of the world’s largest automobile company that he is a disaster on film? Pity poor BBDO here because that’s the position they’re put in by this advertising strategy, even if they came up with it in the first place.

When you storyboard an idea and it seems to work and then film it and it doesn’t, you can always shelve the film and try again. Unless your CEO is the star.

Dr. Zetsche is a shrewd individual, but corporate Chairmen don’t get to that position without a strong belief in their ability to make things happen personally. In this case, Dr. Z is trying to promote Daimler Chrysler’s middle-class American brands Dodge, Jeep and Chrysler. The rationale is probably that Dr. Zetsche represents German engineering which is something Americans understand and would appreciate in their American cars. But by reminding the heartland audience that their beloved brands are controlled from Germany, Dr. Zetsche is doing untold damage to the brand positioning for at least Jeep and Dodge, both of which have painstakingly built their Americana credentials over more than half a century.

Beyond this, these spots are unfocused and confusing. The entire campaign seems to promote the good humor of Dr. Z. more than any specific brand attributes of Chrysler, Dodge or Jeep. This advertising blog also disagrees with the practice of advertising more than one brand in a single spot. Multi-brand advertising for DaimlerChrysler implies that Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge are interchangable. This is a bad move for DaimlerChrysler because U.S. carmakers already have significant positioning and differentiation problems with their brands. The problem was created by the U.S. automotive industry’s practice of marketing the same car under two different brand names such as the Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable.

So we urge Dr. Zetsche to retire quickly and gracefully - at least from the small screen.

Branding Bottom Line:
Why is this German dude talking about our Dodge Durango?

Brand: Jeep Commander (DaimlerChrysler)
Execution: TV
Link: Click Here - this link is to AdRags which requires a small fee to view ads
Target: Drivers looking for a rugged, comfortable vehicle
Rating: **
Reviewer: David

Description:
A large 4×4 drives through a snow-covered landscape and the words “50km South of Arctic Base Camp” appear in military green computer type over the scene. We see two rugged looking men in parkas driving the vehicle. A voiceover says “Three Climate Zones” as we hear one of the men say “How’s he doing?” then we see the second man changing one of two visible temperature dials on the climate control to above 70 degrees. The voiceover continues “Three Rows of Seats,” and the spot pans back to the third row, where a neolithic-looking man is frozen in a block of ice which is not visibly melting. The voiceover continues, “so everyone can travel in comfort. The all-new seven passenger Jeep Commander. It’s your world. Take Command.” The spot ends with a long shot of the Jeep continuing to drive through the snow and the Jeep logo with the words “Commander Starting at $26,485″ and an asterisk to legal language below.

What Works:
This is a genuinely funny spot with classic Jeep brand positioning - built rugged so you don’t have to be. In this case, Jeep is showing us that if two Artic explorers can be comfortable in the artic in their front seats while a block of ice in the third row stays frozen, then we will be very comfortable with Madison and Ashton sitting in the same place watching DVDs while we drive for groceries.

What Doesn’t:
We chose this spot to make a point about exaggeration in advertising. The point is that we don’t much like it except when it is used to lampoon conventional wisdom, and those cases are rare.

Here the exaggeration is about that third-row passenger. While the explorers in the front seat are wearing parkas, they have the climate control for their seats set over 70 degrees Fahrenheit, which is room temperature. The block of the ice in the third row doesn’t seem to be melting. That implies that the Jeep is sustaining a temperature differential of more than 40 degrees between the first and third row of seats - or roughly the difference between summer and winter in Trenton, NJ. Anyone who has experienced dual-zone climate control can tell you that having cool air blow on you while hot air blows on your spouse is a nice luxury and keeps both of you happier. But in no sense does the car become a spa with hot and cold contrasting baths. So while we will be happy to hear from Jeep that the Commander can indeed maintain a 40 degree temperature differential between front and back, this seems to be an exaggeration.

Which is a problem for Jeep. Why? The Jeep brand lives and dies on authenticity. The Rubicon trail, the military heritage, the off-road credentials of these vehicles all make suburbanites feel like they are driving ‘the real thing’ when they conquer the shopping malls. The problem with exaggeration - even when it is used with comedy in mind - is that it feels inauthentic.

This is not the only inauthentic touch in the spot. The cave-dweller himself looks exaggerated, the explorers have big parkas but no hats, goggles or gloves in evidence and have set their interior temperature for the front row far too high for anyone wearing a parka. And one has to wonder why they are driving through the Artic which is not a landmass but ice.

But the worst bit of inauthenticity has to be the small print under the Jeep brand name, which reveals that the Jeep Commander pictured costs not $26,485 (the base price), but $41,220 which is a figure that includes a $1,500 cash allowance and that - and this is hard to believe - the pictured vehicle is a 4X2 or a Rear-Wheel Drive Vehicle. That’s right, folks, the intrepid Artic explorers were too cheap to spring for four-wheel drive!

Branding Bottom Line:
Jeep sells us pleather.