IMC Hawks Blog

Tag: Chrysler

  • Just say anything to win.

    With the 2012 presidential election day right around the corner, the candidates have found themselves in a television battlefield. Each candidate hopes to take his opposition down by firing loaded words weekly. It seems that advertisements to vote for a candidate have instead evolved into advertisements to not vote for their competitor. Both the Obama and Romney campaigns have spent millions on these largely negative commercials that appear to be overflowing our televisions, especially in battleground states. As viewers being constantly bombarded by accusatory messages, are these presidential candidate advertisements doing more harm than good?

    Romney has recently received immense criticism for a misleading television advertisement that aired primarily in Ohio about Obama and the auto industry. The commercial states that Chrysler is moving Jeep production to China because of Obama’s failed policies, a claim that aimed to hit home with the thousands of Ohioans employed in the industry. Although Chrysler does intend on building Jeeps in China, it can be interpreted from the advertisement that Chrysler will stop making Jeeps in the United States and move all production to China. The Democrats’ response to Romney’s claim used blunt terms attacking Romney’s character. The claims were deemed as “outrageous assertions” and Biden even asked of their competitors at a rally in Youngstown, Ohio, “Have they no shame?”

    These responses may have successfully portrayed Romney as a “liar,” but Obama’s auto advertisement used some of the most biting rhetoric yet, according to The Detroit News. It emphasizes Romney’s “wrong-headedness on the auto bailout” (as cited from The Detroit News’ editorial page) but never mentioned the paper’s overall endorsement for Romney in the election.

    Every word in a speech by a presidential candidate is deliberately chosen. Each phrase in a campaign advertisement is carefully crafted. Nothing presidential candidates deliver is accidental, innocent, or meaningless. Politicians are most successful when their campaigning efforts communicate the precise message their audience wants to hear. But what happens when they will say just about anything to win?

    –Erin Kiffmeyer, Hannah Eure, Eugene Lee, Ally Walton, Lauren Habig

  • Super Brand: Chrysler’s Super Bowl Success

    Though the Super Bowl commercials are known for their celebrity appearances and (sometimes) hilarious gimmicks, rarely do the viewers get a look into the heart & identity of a company while also being entertained. Last year, Google’s “Search Stories: Parisian Love” set a new standard for showing Super Bowl viewers what a company’s product actually did while also making a touching commercial that triggered an emotional response.

    Google didn’t have a spot in this year’s game, but one company capitalized on using the ad time to set a definition for their brand and that company was Chrysler.  Chrysler’s lengthy 2-minute spot focused on defining the building blocks of their brand’s identity.  Although the commercial was essentially a straight minute of voice-over narration, the use of the urban backdrop of Detroit and celebrity endorser Eminem’s riff for his mega-hit “Lose Yourself” still provided viewers with a chilling emotional response.  Chrysler may have been using the commercial to announce its new 200 model, a “luxury” car, but the ad focused primarily on the American grit and hard work that goes into each and every one of its vehicles.

    During a time when America is constantly being classified by how behind we are in the global marketplace, Chrysler chose to define its brand as purely American. Everything from the visuals, to the voice over, to Detroit born & raised celebrity Eminem provided a united identity for Chrysler that culminated in the company’s new tag line: “Imported from Detroit”.

    Anna Kate Babnik, Katie Eagle, Deji Adeleke, Tiffany Evans, and Carissa Niederkorn