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Monday
Feb072011

Super Bowl XLV: Chrysler Ad Steals The Show

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

Being 40 and out of touch with most of what's cool, I was fairly proud of myself for being able to name that tune just a few seconds into that cool Chrysler ad during Super Bowl XLV Sunday night.

Of course I flubbed my subsequent attempt to be clever on Twitter when I wrote "Eminem + Ford. How predictable." It wasn't Ford. And it actually turned out not so predictable.

But after watching those opening few seconds, I actually paid close attention to the narration, and OGS contributor Bruce Sholl even emailed it to me today because it left an impression on him as well:

Narrator:

I got a question for you. What does this city know about luxury? Huh? What does a town that's been to hell and back know about the finer things in life? Well I'll tell ya, more than most. You see, it's the hottest fires that make the hardest steel. Add hard work and conviction, and the know-how that runs generations deep in every last one of us. That's who we are. That's our story. Now it's probably not the one you've been reading in the papers. The one being written by folks who've never even been here and don't know what we're capable of. Because when it comes to luxury, it's as much about where it's from as who it's for. Now we're from America, but this isn't New York City. Or the Windy City. Or Sin City. And we're certainly no one's Emerald City.

Eminem:
This is the Motor City. And this is what we do.

Anyway, now that I've watched the great Chrysler ad a few times, I must say it's incredibly refreshing to see brands put some effort into good, old-fashioned copywriting. Our preference toward pictures has rendered the written word trivial the last 20+ years, even in spaces where our modern culture once adored it.

Don't get me wrong: the visuals and the tone are all rock-solid in the ad, but Chrysler doesn't have to go heavy on the salt to make up for flavorless writing like you see in so many commercials.

In fact, on the rare occasion I do come across strong prose in advertising, I'm reminded of Don Draper's great line to his team in the season two premiere of "Mad Men" when he barked: "Stop writing for writers."

Too often we get caught up in using various literary tricks because we have our competitors in mind. But Chrysler wrote that script — wrote it damn well — for only one group of people. The right group of people. Its audience.

Watch the video below and try to disagree:

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