Those of you still laboring under the false impression that Chryslers, Dodges and Jeeps were the product of an American car manufacturer will not be pleased to see the latest commercial by DaimlerChrysler.
It features an automotive journalist asking DCX chairman Dieter Zetsche about why Chrysler Group vehicles are so darned good. "Get in," responds Mr. Zetsche (the company calls him "Dr.", but unless he also gives employees their annual physicals, he doesn't get the honorific from me). They then take off on an odyssey of Chrysler Group products: powersliding a Charger R/T, driving a Commander over a steep ramp, and slamming a Pacifica into a wall. It's a montage with possibly the highest ratio of disclaimers per second in advertising history, and it's supposed to leave the viewer with the German-accented impression that Chrysler Group vehicles are awesome.
It left me missing "Mr. K."
Yutaka Katayama was the head of Nissan's US operations in the 1960s, and he's the guy credited with taking a two-seat sports car called the "Fairlady" in Japan and turning it into the legendary Datsun 240Z. When Nissan was feeling its oats again in the late 90s, it hired an actor to replicate Katayama-san in a series of television commercials, the most memorable line of which was "Dogs love trucks." (By the way, it's true. Our dogs love the Pathfinder ... of course, they don't have to put gas in it)
Of course, not even "Pat" Morita could have gotten consumers to buy the old Quest. It took the arrival of the less-fictitious Carlos Ghosn from Renault for Nissan's fortunes to turn around. The "Mr. K" campaign was quickly binned ... and now, you'll only find a reference to Mr. Katayama in the "Heritage" section on Nissan's Web site.
The thinking here is that the DCX people worried that American car buyers were mentally lumping the Chrysler Group in with GM and Ford, which together would make a really decent car company, but individually are completely adrift. Throwing the ultra-German Zetsche into the ads, DCX suggests, helps reinforce that Chrysler isn't really one of the "Big Three;" in fact, it's better than the other two, thanks to the help of its German owners.
Of course, given sales volume and North American production, the Big Three's about to become GM, Ford and Toyota. But I digress.
Will the ads work? I think "no." Herr Zetsche looks authoritative with his bushy mustache and all, and I can never see enough video of Chargers in full drift ... but the campaign is really selling two things: Dieter Zetsche as a guy who knows something, and Chrysler Group cars as being awesome. It'll either succeed at one or the other; it can't succeed at both.
Just to let you konw, the reason why Dieter Zetsche has the title of Doctor is because he received a Doctorate in Electrical Engineering in 1982. I never understood why people think that you have to work in a medical field to earn the title of Doctor...
Posted by: Corey Bingham | July 04, 2006 at 10:07 PM