15953: Legendary Scam Ads For Jeep…?

 

This Jeep campaign from Ecuador should have been run off the road during the concept stage.

 

15332: Jeep Cherokee Creates Culturally Clueless Collision.

Advertising Age reported the Cherokee Nation requested that Jeep and other corporations stop using names hijacked borrowed from Native American ancestry to sell products, essentially slamming the brakes on the iconic Jeep Cherokee. When the automaker temporarily stopped airing its Super Bowl spot while celebrity spokesman Bruce Springsteen faced DUI charges, Jeep remarked, “But it’s also right that we pause our Big Game commercial until the actual facts can be established. Its message of community and unity is as relevant as ever.” So, it will be interesting to see how Jeep demonstrates its sense of “community and unity” by responding to the Cherokee Nation.

 

Cherokee Nation Wants To Reclaim Name From Jeep…: Tuesday Wake-Up Call

 

By Garett Sloane

 

Cherokee Nation takes stand

 

The Cherokee Nation, which has felt co-opted by corporate branding, is out to reclaim its heritage, requesting that Jeep and other automakers retire names of vehicles that borrow from Native American ancestry. Jeep is perhaps one of the best-known car brands, and its Cherokee model has been a part of U.S. driving for decades.

 

But the keepers of tradition at tribes no longer want to see their sacred names repurposed for corporate sales, according to Automotive News. “The Cherokee Nation said it’s time for corporations such as Jeep and sports franchises to retire the use of Native American names and imagery,” Auto News reports.

 

Car and Driver was first to report on the request: “I’m sure this comes from a place that is well-intended, but it does not honor us by having our name plastered on the side of a car,” Chuck Hoskin Jr., principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, told Car and Driver. “The best way to honor us is to learn about our sovereign government, our role in this country, our history, culture, and language and have meaningful dialogue with federally recognized tribes on cultural appropriateness.”

 

Jeep had to rethink its marketing in all areas this month, after the company tapped Bruce Springsteen for a Super Bowl commercial. But The Boss was later found to have a recent drunken driving arrest on his record, putting a damper on his big spot.

14867: Top Creative Advertisements Of 2019 Have Primitive Eligibility Requirements.

Top 10 Creative Advertisements of 2019 included this Jeep campaign from Publicis Middle East, United Arab Emirates, deemed among the most popular work displayed on Ads of the World based on number of views and shares. That’s some pretty odd criteria for eligibility, as views and shares hardly translate to quality of concept and execution. Who can say viewers weren’t aghast at the cultural cluelessness and sharing it to express disgust and outrage over the awfulness?

14602: Jeepers, Jeep!

Not sure what this Jeep campaign from Publicis Middle East, United Arab Emirates, is trying to communicate. But pretty sure it’s culturally clueless and offensive.

11234: Culturally Clueless Cars…?

From The New York Times…

When Cars Assume Ethnic Identities

By Glenn Collins

Coming to a showroom near you for 2014: the first sport utility vehicle in its class equipped with a 9-speed automatic transmission. It’s also the first to offer a parallel-parking feature. And, in 4-wheel-drive models, the rear axle disconnects automatically, for fuel efficiency.

Oh, yes: its name is the Jeep Cherokee.

Hold on — wasn’t that model name retired more than a decade ago? Wasn’t it replaced by the Jeep Liberty for 2002?

Yet now, in a time of heightened sensitivity over stereotypes, years after ethnic, racial and gender labeling has been largely erased from sports teams, products and services, Jeep is reviving an American Indian model name. Why?

“In the automobile business, you constantly have to reinvent yourself, and sometimes it’s best to go back to the future,” said Allen Adamson, managing director of the New York office of Landor Associates, a brand and corporate identity consultancy.

Jeep, a division of the Chrysler Group, explained that its market research revealed a marked fondness for the name. The 2014 version, said Jim Morrison, director of Jeep marketing, “is a new, very capable vehicle that has the Cherokee name and Cherokee heritage. Our challenge was, as a brand, to link the past image to the present.”

The company says it respects changed attitudes toward stereotyping. “We want to be politically correct, and we don’t want to offend anybody,” Mr. Morrison said. Regarding the Cherokee name, he added: “We just haven’t gotten any feedback that was disparaging.”

Well, here’s some: “We are really opposed to stereotypes,” said Amanda Clinton, a spokeswoman for the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma. “It would have been nice for them to have consulted us in the very least.”

But, she added, the Cherokee name is not copyrighted, and the tribe has been offered no royalties for the use of the name. “We have encouraged and applauded schools and universities for dropping offensive mascots,” she said, but stopped short of condemning the revived Jeep Cherokee because, “institutionally, the tribe does not have a stance on this.”

So far, marketing materials for the 2014 Cherokee model have eschewed references to, or portrayals of, American Indians and their symbols. That’s a far cry from the excesses of past years, when marketers went beyond embracing stereotyping to reveling in it. Indeed, Chrysler’s restraint seems an indication of just how much things have changed.

For decades, American Indian tribal names have helped to propel automobiles out of showrooms. Return with us now to the era when Pontiac’s sales brochures carried illustrations comparing its 6-cylinder engines to six red-painted, feathered cartoon Indian braves rowing a canoe.

Or review Pontiac’s marketing copy, which proclaimed that “among the names of able Indian warriors known to the white race in America, that of Pontiac, chief of the Ottawas and accepted leader of the Algonquin family of tribes, stands pre-eminent.” Of course, the visage of the chief was appropriated as a hood ornament.

Many other tribes were adopted as marketing tools. Long gone is the Jeep Comanche pickup truck, sold in the late 1980s, along with the Jeep Comanche Eliminator.

Certainly, American Indian names are still in the market: consider Indian motorcycles, about to resurface under yet another new owner, Polaris Industries. And Chrysler’s full-sized S.U.V., the Grand Cherokee, introduced in 1992 as a larger version of the Cherokee and still a market leader. In fact, its success was a reason for the revival of the Cherokee name for a midsize S.U.V.

American Indians have hardly been alone in the cavalcade of automobile cultural stereotyping. In the 1950s, advertising for the Studebaker Scotsman didn’t actually use the word cheapskate, but prospective buyers were informed that “when you and your family sit in your thrifty Scotsman...this great Studebaker body cradles you, your family and friends in safety.” It should be noted, though, that the Scotsman featured cardboard door panels and its hubcaps and trim weren’t chrome-plated: they were painted silver.

While there is no indication that the General Motors Viking was discontinued in the early 1930s because of protests by outraged Scandinavians, it’s a certainty that no automaker’s copy writers would dare write today that “the development of the Viking car closely parallels the development of the Viking youth in attaining manhood,” where “only those best fitted for leadership survived to contribute to the strength and superiorities of the race.”

Moreover, in the Roaring Twenties there was no apparent feminist backlash against the Little Jordan Tomboy. The cover of its 1927 advertising brochure depicted a smart, stylish woman in jodphurs and knee-length boots, clutching a riding crop. The purple marketing prose stated that “I am the Little Jordan Tomboy,” with “a thousand miles of open road before my saucy nose.”

Also hard to fathom today is the Studebaker Dictator, “Champion of its Class,” discontinued after 1937, when the rise of Hitler and Mussolini gave the model name an unpleasant odor.

In the late 1920s, the quest for association with high-profile leaders led the Windsor Autoworks in St. Louis to shamelessly place a color portrait of the Prince of Wales on its 1929 brochure for a new vehicle, The White Prince. Buckingham Palace was not amused, and expressed its displeasure.

American Indians have long opposed derogatory sports-team labels and likened fans’ use of war paint to the derogation of African-Americans with blackface. The N.C.A.A. has forbidden the use of nicknames, as well as mascots, logos, signs and band uniforms that are “deemed hostile or abusive in terms of race, ethnicity or national origin.”

In 1994, St. John’s University in New York changed the name of its sports teams from the Redmen to the Red Storm. Also gone are the Miami Redskins and the Marquette University Warriors; the Southeastern Oklahoma State University Savages are now the Savage Storm.

The Washington Redskins have resisted; so have the Atlanta Braves, opposing a name change or the discontinuation of its tomahawk chop. But the Braves’ team mascots, Chief Noc-A-Homa and Princess Win-A-Lotta, have been remaindered.

Even aside from the use of an American Indian tribal name in the Jeep Cherokee, the risks are high in the introduction of any vehicle. Automobile experts estimate the cost of renewing a nameplate like Jeep Cherokee at more than $50 million.

Why, given these risks, return to a discontinued brand? “Coming up with new names is very expensive these days,” said Mr. Adamson, the brand consultant, explaining that trademark research, focus groups and legal due diligence can be costly. The growing quest for viable names — and the third-rail of stereotypical labeling — are possible explanations for the advent of such hard-to-spell monikers as the Volkswagen Tiguan, and the growing adoption of concocted names like Acura, Elantra, Infiniti and Lexus — as well as the proliferation of alphanumeric designations.

“New models have all of these three-letter-code designations that mean nothing to me,” said Stephen W. Hayes, a Manhattan automotive historian and a collector of printed auto memorabilia, of nameplates like MKX, RX 350, F-150, 328i, QX56 and GL450 that populate the auto world. “Companies don’t name their cars as colorfully anymore.”

Nevertheless, “just the name of a brand itself is one of the most powerful marketing tools you have,” Mr. Adamson said. “Automobile brands define who you are, and Cherokee summons up rich associations.”

The Jeep Cherokee was a winner from the start, introduced in 1974 as a sport utility vehicle with the latest gadgets. Recent market research revealed that “there was so much passion behind the Cherokee,” Mr. Morrison, the Jeep marketing director, said. “What was really interesting was that people’s fondness for the Cherokee was greater than that for Liberty.”

Giving the new Jeep its old tribal name may have seemed just another acceptable risk. “Names can be polarizing, and can cause controversy, so you have to be careful,” Mr. Adamson said, but opposition to brand names has become something of a national pastime. “Anytime you introduce a name, someone will be upset.”

A name that has zero associations is even more likely to sabotage a new model’s introduction. “If you have a name that offends nobody, then you end up with a forgettable brand” that won’t cling to the memory, Mr. Adamson said.

“So,” he said, “it just won’t be sticky.”

8337: Off-Color Commentary For GlobalHue.

The comment thread for the GlobalHue post at AgencySpy has taken an ugly turn, incredible as that may seem. What started as a stereotypical display of cultural cluelessness by minority advertising agency haters has degenerated into a celebratory rant and rave by GlobalHue staffers. The free-for-all illustrates a phenomenon noted by MultiCultClassics in a 2007 perspective originally inspired by another AgencySpy post. On course to exceed 80 comments, the spectacle essentially spotlights the alleged improprieties of the ex-studio manager of a minority advertising agency’s satellite office. Truly pathetic. Considering the controversies involving GlobalHue in recent years—including the Bermuda affair, U.S. Census shakedown and Jeep campaign criticism—Adweek’s Multicultural Agency of the Decade is looking like a minority version of Draftfcb.

7973: Jeep Rides Through Cultural Clichés.

Looks like Jeep’s minority advertising didn’t pursue the Black inventors concept after all. The brand opted for the equally contrived Black artists angle.

7956: Jeepers, That’s Patronizing.

Wieden + Kennedy recently launched a new campaign for the 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee featuring the tagline, “The things we make, make us,” along with the following commercial mantra:

The things that make us Americans are the things we make. This has always been a nation of builders. Craftsmen. Men and women for whom straight stitches and clean welds were matters of personal pride. They made the skyscrapers and the cotton gins. Colt revolvers. Jeep 4X4’s. These things make us who we are.
As a people, we do well when we make good things, and not so well when we don’t. The good news is this can be put right. We just have to do it. And so we did. This, our newest son, was imagined, drawn, carved, stamped, hewn and forged here in America. It is well made and it is designed to work. This was once a country where people made things. Beautiful things. And so it is again.

As others have pointed out, the message feels exclusive, depicting historical footage that seemingly ignores the contributions minorities have made in the building of America. Not sure if Jeep’s minority agencies agreed, but the print ads targeting Latinos and Blacks indicate someone noticed the erasure of real American history. However, the minority work feels forced, with copy like, “For a lineage as rich as yours…” The tagline reads, “Greatness isn’t just built, it’s earned.” Not too patronizing. It’s just a matter of time before Jeep produces a Black Inventors ad.

7099: Jeepers! GlobalHue Lands A Project.

From Adweek…

Chrysler Awards Jeep Project to GlobalHue

By Noreen O’Leary

NEW YORK Chrysler has reached beyond lead shop BBDO in Detroit and awarded a fourth-quarter Jeep creative assignment to independent GlobalHue, the Southfield Hills, Mich., multicultural agency behind the launch of the Jeep Compass, sources said.

A Chrysler rep declined to comment, as did a BBDO rep.

Omnicom Group shop BBDO will continue to provide account service on Jeep, while media support and digital efforts for the brand remain at the holding company’s PHD and Organic units, respectively.

Jeep spent $173 million in domestic measured media last year and $35 million through the first half of 2009, per Nielsen. All told, Chrysler spent $840 million on ads last year and $230 million through the first six months of ‘09.

This assignment going to GlobalHue is not the Q4 creative work the brand put into play in August, per sources.

Last month, when it emerged that the automaker had contacted outside agencies, along with BBDO, to pitch Q4 creative ideas, the company said BBDO remained Chrysler’s lead agency. BBDO is under contract to Chrysler until the end of January.

In addition to GlobalHue, which produced the 2007 “bobble-head” spots for the Compass, Chrysler had recently used Omnicom’s Cutwater in San Francisco for national creative duties on Jeep. In January, the auto marketer moved national duties back to BBDO after a two-year absence.

Italian automaker Fiat, which owns 20 percent of the Detroit auto company, is known to use multiple agencies. Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne now runs Chrysler as part of its emergence from bankruptcy in June.