Chrysler has put the tagline of its popular Super Bowl ad on a new line of T-shirts.
Hoping to capitalize on the unexpectedly warm reception given its “Imported from Detroit” tagline, which anchored a Super Bowl commercial featuring rap star Eminim, Chrysler will let consumers help spread the message.
But it won’t be cheap, Chrysler planning to charge $29.95 for all-cotton T-shirts it will be selling on its Chrysler division website. The shirts will feature the “imported” message superimposed over the brand’s recently redesigned winged-badge logo.
Notably, Chrysler says the T-shirts are being made in the U.S., though it’s not clear if the automaker has signed on with a vendor in the Motor City. (Click Here for TheChryslerCollection.)
The “Imported from Detroit” message was the brief tag to an unusually long, 2-minute commercial aired shortly after the half-time break of the Super Bowl game, earlier this month. Where makers typically try to use humor or pastoral scenes to help sell their products, Chrysler took aim at some of what a rival maker called the “myths” about the struggling carmaker. These included shots of a beaten-down Motor City, as well as images of a town on the mend.
Rap start Eminem is shown driving through Motown in a Chrysler 200 sedan before parking at the restored Fox Theater, climbing onto the stage with a gospel choir and then turning to the camera to proclaim, “This is the Motor City, and this is what we do.”
GM is using paid search engine tactics to co-opt those searching for the Chrysler and VW Super Bowl ads.
The ad was consistently ranked near the top of the much-watched and compared Super Bowl ad fest. (For more, Click Here to read columnist Marty Bernstein’s column on how the game’s commercials resonated with consumers.)
Meanwhile, Chrysler division chief executive Olivier Francois was to have met with Eminem late last week, as TheDetroitBureau.com reported, thought the executive cautioned there would be no sequel to the campaign unless a “relevant” story line could be developed. (Click Here for that story.)
The other automotive spot that caught Super Bowl viewers was one from Volkswagen, which featured a young boy in a Darth Vader costume thinking he had used “the Force” to start his father’s VW. It has rapidly become one of the most widely watched commercials ever on the Internet.
But in a canny effort to co-opt the success of its rivals, General Motors has reportedly been spending sizably on a search engine campaign designed to grab web users searching for the Chrysler and Volkswagen spots.
The Wall Street Journal says that GM’s global marketing czar, Joel Ewanick, has ordered his team to buy up search terms through Google and other search engines, including phrases such as “Imported from Detroit,” and “Darth Vader.”
Those who click on the paid search engine links would inadvertently be redirected to GM web pages.
GM placed a number of its own spots on the air during the Super Bowl, but received far less of a positive response than either VW or Chrysler.