Essay 1945

Three more online responses to the story presented in Essay 1937…

Jamaica, NY, you are absolutely correct about catch phrase, fad and face-of-the-week. Credibility, respectability, understandability and more can take 50 years in some cases and in some industries. For legal release, I currently own a Ford Mustang. Big deal. Ford is currently running at $10 billion a year MINUS for several years now. The idea that this company has vast resources may need to be re-examined? This is an opportunity to hit a gold mine with advertising Ford’s great new cars, trucks and choices. To promote a company’s product with digital and video…these corporations are soon going to own the medium and produce everything themselves. It will be the end of certain media companies like Fox or CNN, for example. What if Ford gave away 2 cars a day tax-free by watching their channel and shows? The announcement to call or email the Ford station for the car/truck/van could appear even during a commercial break??!! You will love Ford’s programming, which [gives you] special invitations to events if you actually purchase or recommend a purchase towards a Ford product (nagging your parents is acceptable — kids are allowed to call on a legal guardian’s behalf!). Now…take the word Ford away and replace it with any other company in the world in terms of video ownership (leave off the minus $10B part). Ford can produce and distribute shows and music with its cars worldwide if it chooses. — Brandon, FL

In spite of the no doubt great amount of research done before signing this deal, this comes across to the ‘urban’ community as a ‘knee jerk’ reaction. I agree wholeheartedly with Mr. Zimmerman! He's right on point with his assessment! Any hip-hop aficionado, African American or so called ‘urban’ individual can tell you that ‘street cred’ (itself, not an ‘urban’ catchphrase) is ‘earned’ and not bought. One cannot buy credibility within this market and certainly cannot gain it by co-opting the most visible ‘face’ to attach to your brand/product. How is it that Ford, with all of their resources, has not seen the evidence of this played out with so many other brands in the past? Evidently, Corporate America STILL ‘gets to the party late’ by recognizing the ‘hot’ personalities/trends/etc. well after they’ve already been made popular in the ‘urban’ community; a strategy that invites ridicule for the brand and widespread applause for the celeb involved for having negotiated such a deal. Does Corporate America not understand that with the ‘urban’ community, the media/marketing tenets of mass market metrics to validate your marketing ROI does not apply to identifying/developing/adopting the trends quickly enough to lend your brand some ‘cool’? Actually, the ‘urban’ market gives more props to Flex in this deal because he’s ‘gettin’ his paper’ by exercising his popularity and this isn’t necessarily going to give Ford the status it’s looking for. Actually, all this proves is that Ford and brands like them are still far off from having a meaningful dialogue with the urban community and even further away from beginning to understand it. Poor move by Ford, excellent move by Flex! — Jamaica, NY

HEY FORD…LISTEN UP. This is exactly what street cred is all about. Now…have a Rap version of American Idol. Make it kind of “underground” yet accessible by everyone. Ford loves music and entertainment! I think they proved that with radios in their cars and the #1 music show in TV history. Get this new DJ to get a huge national contest and star on the stage. Ford can allow downloads from its website of new acts and performers from around the world. Forget simply signing people up for cred…Ford has an opportunity to DEFINE what cred really means just like defining what an Idol can mean. Immediately announce this new music contest and you will receive millions of hits worldwide within a week for this star-making opportunity in the Rap music field. Oh by the way…sell some cars and trucks. — Brandon, FL