Chrysler Buys 60-Second Super Bowl Ad… for the Charger?
Come Monday, there could be just as many people talking about the Super Bowl ads as there are talking about the actual game.
According to CNNMoney.com, Chrysler is the only domestic automaker to take part this year, spending some serious dough (ads cost about $3 million per 30 seconds) on a one minute ad. I think Chrysler should have followed the lead of its Detroit neighbors by sitting this one out and investing the money in products worth advertising. Especially considering Chrysler’s vehicle of choice is the outdated Dodge Charger.
In the Charger’s defense, it is the number one sedan at CarGurus.com, but is hardly worth Super Bowl attention considering it hasn’t seen a major update since its intro in 2006.
Aside from that fact, there are plenty of folks who still believe Chrysler shouldn’t have received any government money, and spending some on the Super Bowl could be perceived as wasteful. Nothing the automaker can say (especially about the Charger) can overcome that negative PR.
In the CNN article, Chrysler spokeswoman Dianna C. Gutierrez said,
What better way to illustrate to our customers that we are still here than to air on the Super Bowl, which is not only watched for the game, but also for the advertising spots.
There are lots of ways. The first of which is to release new product.
Until the Pentastar has cars worth advertising, I’m going to sit at home and look forward to the ads from Audi, Honda, Kia and Volkswagen.
Do you think Chrysler is making the right move by advertising the Charger during the Super Bowl?
-tgriffith
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Doesn’t Dodge plan to turn Ram trucks into a separate brand? Seems like that might have been a smarter thing to spend a lot of money advertising during the Super Bowl than a retro-style muscle car that already has a fair amount of brand name recognition and could use an update.
Chrysler’s money spent on the ad has already paid dividends. This blogger has posted on it and we (and a lot of others) are talking about it. Money well spent IMO.
That’s a good point George, but don’t you think Hollerin is right that promoting the new Ram brand would have been even better? Super Bowl is great place to introduce new brands to a mass audience, not promote aging brands in need of change.
Its about creating a desire, imho. I think Dodge did a great job. One of the only commercials worth watching during the superbowl. It was a bad year for superbowl commercials.