Jeep To Take Over N.Y.'s Times Square Billboards

Jeep is focusing on its target consumers in the second phase of its new "I Live. I Ride. I am. Jeep" campaign launching on Thanksgiving Day.

Elements include a new TV spot, "It's Only Hair," breaking on Nov. 30, that shows women in hair salons with voiceover saying: "Even after waiting a month to get an appointment and spending two hours in the chair, only the open-air freedom of the 2010 Jeep Wrangler can make vanity fly right out of the window."

In the ad, by Southfield, Mich.-based GlobalHue, women climb into Jeep Wranglers, and disassemble their 'dos by driving with the top down, their hair blowing in the wind. The spot closes with the tagline.

The spot will air nationally on network and cable programming, including CBS's "Two and a Half Men," "CSI: Miami," "The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson," and NBC's "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon." Media is handled by PHD, and Organic does interactive for the brand.

The company will also take over the billboards on both the NASDAQ and Reuters buildings at 43rd Street and Broadway. The boards will run 30-second videos and banners from 6 a.m. Thanksgiving morning until 2 a.m. Friday, Nov. 27.

Jeep has also been running ads in subway and train stations in New York this month, with banners, stair wraps, posters, floor graphics, and tunnel videos viewable from inside trains in Penn Station, the PATH train and subways.

Said Mike Manley, president and CEO of Jeep Brand, Chrysler Group LLC, in a release: "The subway is the ultimate anti-Jeep experience. It's crowded, stifling and routine -- everything that Jeep is not. So why is it the right venue for Jeep? Because it allows us to communicate the Jeep philosophy of freedom and adventure to an audience that is completely captive -- as well as ethnically, culturally and economically diverse. It offers an extensive number of impressions, not bound by time of day. And it provides a platform for a tailored message."

The company is also running a series of new print ads debuting on Dec. 11 in Entertainment Weekly and Sports Illustrated intended to illustrate the Jeep zeitgeist with creative showing different kinds of people who own Jeeps. One of the ads -- which follow the campaign's theme of spare, white backgrounds -- shows an entrepreneur saying: "I gave up a corner office for a home office. I collect world maps but I study road maps. I take in the night sky from my moon roof. I carry precious cargo -- he's big, hairy, barks at the sun and always rides shotgun." The ad features an image of the Jeep Liberty.

Jeep, which is reportedly shopping for a new AOR, says the campaign is part of a three-part effort that started with ads intended to re-establish the brand by introducing a new "Jeep Philosophy" and the new tag. The third phase will be dealer focused with a specific call to action and sales events. The company will also tweak the tagline for a bottom-funnel focus: "I live. I ride. I buy. Jeep."