• by Tanya Gazdik , Yesterday

Ram is enlisting actor Terry Crews in a high-energy campaign that features a new anthem for the brand. 

The campaign rolls out over the 2025 college football season and includes  four national broadcast commercials, as well as multiple videos that will run across the Ram brand’s social and digital media channels.

Created by Doner, the effort stars Crews, who describes himself as a Ram truck “super fan.”

Twenty-one years after Crews gave a preview of his singing voice in his comedic rendition of Vanessa Carlton’s “A Thousand Miles” in the film "White Chicks," the performer returned for an encore. This time it's from inside a Ram truck in “Favorite Song,” a teaser for the campaign.

The video opens with a Ram in the middle of a college football stadium, over which Crews announces, “Ram loves college football!” He explains he’s written a college fight song for Ram. But when he presses play, the 2001 smash pop song plays instead. “What the? That’s not it. I do love this song, though!” says Crews, before he begins singing and head-shaking to the music as he did in the “White Chicks” film.

The followup spot, “Epic Launch," features the new Ram anthem along with a cameo by Penn State quarterback Drew Allar.

The campaign will also include a multicultural extension for the Hispanic market, which will launch in a few weeks says Lindsay Fifelski, head of advertising, Ram Trucks. 

“This campaign required a very specific mix of someone with a very big, bold personality, someone with comedic chops, someone with a tie to football, and ideally, somebody that had some rhythm and could carry a tune,” Fifelski tells Marketing Daily “So we threw around several names at the beginning, but Terry Crews just really kept rising to the top. He checked every single box.”

Crews is no stranger to football — he played college football about two hours west of Stellantis headquarters at Western Michigan University. He went on to play as a defensive end and linebacker in the NFL for the Los Angeles Rams, San Diego Chargers and Washington Redskins.

“He's also got just this huge personality and this infectious sense of humor," Fifelski says. "You can't help but smile when you see him or when you're around him. And then when we paired all that with the fact that he's already well known for his very over-the-top performances and movies, we just knew that he was the perfect person for this campaign.”

College football is a better fit for Ram vs. the NFL, she says. 

“Football in general is a very strong interest point for our buyers,” Fifelski says. “When we looked at the opportunity, [we asked] how can we really own football? College football specifically is where we saw that opening. NFL certainly a passion point for our buyers too, but the NFL is overcrowded in terms of automotive advertising.”

Broadcast spots are shared on social channels along with some social-only content.

“Our brand has a lot of new product news, a lot of new brand news to share,” Fifelski says. “We thought that social media paired with the overall theme and tone of this campaign was the perfect avenue to bring that to life.”