• by Karl Greenberg , January 8, 2010

Cheap Trick is back! Audi of America is using the Trick's music in a spot it will run during next month's Super Bowl. The automaker, which has also advertised in the past two games, will spotlight the Audi A3 TDI (diesel) car in the fourth quarter of Super Bowl XLIV. The ad, which Audi says will be humorous and have an environmental theme, has the '80s rock band redoing one of its hits for the backing track.

Audi says the diesel-centric brand spot "delivers the message that being environmentally conscious might not be easy, but the Audi A3 TDI clean diesel is now a proven environmental solution." The ad is by San Francisco-based Venables Bell & Partners, which has had the reported $70 million account for the past four years.

Although Audi has not finished producing the spot, the company has had cinematic themes over the past two years. The 2008 Super Bowl spot was a parody of "The Godfather," where instead of a horse's head, a mafia don finds an oil-soaked grill of a stodgy luxury model. The hero escapes in an Audi R8 sports car.

Last year, Audi used action actor Jason Statham in a series of vignettes that had him racing from luxury car to luxury car to escape villains. None of the cars does the job until he gets into an Audi for the getaway.

Audi was one of several automakers to hit the asphalt last year with a new range of new-tech diesel powertrains. The company says that its Audi Q7 TDI (turbo direct injection diesel engine) sport utility vehicle accounts for 43% of Q7 sales, and that the TDI accounts for 53% of A3 sales.

The company, which posted U.S. sales of 9,030 vehicles last month -- a 17.1% increase from the prior year's December -- said that it had expected TDI models to account for only 18 to 20% of the sales mix for the Q7 and A3. The Audi A3 TDI also grabbed "2010 Green Car of the Year" honors at the Los Angeles International Auto Show.

This year, the company moves up-market with the A8, the brand flagship unveiled in Miami last year. The car goes on sale this fall.

European automakers have been bringing diesel to the U.S. as their answer to gasoline/electric hybrids from the Japanese automakers, Ford and GM. Audi says its TDI technology produces 20% fewer C02 emissions than comparably sized gasoline engines. The company says the A3 TDI gets 42 mpg highway.

Scott Keogh, chief marketing officer, Audi of America, said in a statement that the Super Bowl platform is effective for the automaker: "The brand has never been stronger, market share is increasing and we are setting the stage to increase our momentum in 2010."