Super Bowl super ad missing the target?

I guess very few of you missed the fact that last weekend played host to the annual mega event The Super bowl. It seems this year the broader piece of discussion ended up being the half time performance of Madonna. And weirdly enough just not so much about the actual game, considering that this year it actually was unusually intriguing and exciting. Anyway I will not talk about neither. For me the Super Bowl commercials have always been of high interest. It’s the most expensive TV media time that a brand can buy on the globe! The very same brands tend to spend equal amounts on the production. Safe to say the outcome is in most cases always quite consistently entertaining. The downside from a brand perspective is that with more or less unlimited budgets and for once not very restrictive briefs, the end result is just that – entertaining but often off brand. With the opportunity to hire talent that is in many cases more well-known and definitely more liked than the brand itself, the brand and its message tends to become overshadowed by its endorser.

This year was no different. It seems there is a common consensus among those who care about these ads that the number one contribution this year was Chrysler’s monumental two minute (which translates to an estimated $14 million) “Halftime in America” ad. Well, Republicans don’t really like it that much since it is a not so subtle praise to Obama who is claimed to have saved the company (along with the rest of Detroit) back in 2009. Enough of the politics and back to the subject matter at hand. So essentially the ad is about how Chrysler made a comeback when everyone thought that time had ran out. How it got back on its feet against all odds. This being compared to the fact that just like Chrysler did, so will the rest of America no matter how grim the future is looking. Because that’s what America is all about. Never giving up. Always prevailing. Very well scripted and beautifully produced with Oscar winning actor Clint Eastwood (don’t have any figures on what he got for it, but whatever the sum was he actually donated it to charity) acting and narrating this iconic ad one can only expect that Chrysler will now strengthen its brand and consequently sell a shit load of cars like there was no tomorrow!

Well I’m not so sure. I hate to spoil the party, but considering the massive ambition of this piece of brand communication, the end success of it may get lost along the way. My main reason for this opinion is that the message of the ad mainly delivers on the current situation of the nation and the "never give up" spirit of its inhabitants. In those parts that Chrysler attempts to shoe horn themselves into the equation, the American auto industry at large is more likely to benefit, rather than Chrysler itself more specifically. Which I’m sure the competitor brands are very thankful of, but considering the investment, Chrysler perhaps in hindsight might not be…