Chrysler is waiting for new products to come down the pipeline, and that is a tense wait. But the Auburn Hills, Mich. unit has a Rubicon-style rope to cling to in the new Jeep Grand Cherokee. The
vehicle, the first under the Chrysler/Fiat SpA alliance, is a critical and (I know it's overused) iconic nameplate in the Jeep lineup. The company is rolling out a new ad campaign for the redesigned
SUV, and at one time back in the days when SUV meant truck, one of the top sellers. The new Grand Cherokee is, like most SUV's these days, a unibody design, but the company will tout its array of
technologies that do things like adjust ground clearance for off-road driving.
The effort is launching with a new spot, via Portland, Ore-based Wieden+Kennedy, which is handling the launch,
though GlobalHue remains AOR. Also new is the Jeep tag-line, "The things we make, make us," replacing, at least for the Grand Cherokee launch, GlobalHue's "I live. I ride. I am."
The
anthem spot has a strong American industrial-might feel, with black-and-white shots of trains, and factories, showers of sparks as men hammer away at rivets, the Wright Brothers fly overhead in an
early biplane. Voiceover says, "The things that make us American are the things we make. This has always been a nation of builders...as a people we do well when we make good things, not so well when
we don't. The good news is, this can be put right...we just have to do it. So we did." The footage changes to the new Grand Cherokee splashing through mud and down a dirt road. "This, our newest
son, was imagined, drawn, carved, stamped, hewn and forged here, in America. It is well made and it is designed to work. This was once a country where people made things...beautiful things. And so it
is again."
A spokesperson for the Chrysler LLC brand says the second phase launches mid-July. The 60 and 30-second anthem spot launches June 11, on all major networks plus late night network
programs like Nightline, Letterman, and The Tonight Show. Buys include early morning shows like "Good Morning America" and morning and evening news programs. "In July you will see a full,
comprehensive ad launch including some very interesting non-traditional elements that we can't talk about yet."