Bruce Springsteen starred and narrated a two-minute ad for the Jeep in the Super Bowl, which featured far more American culture and scenery than any vehicle.
Rob DeMartin for Jeep
The Jeep Super Bowl commercial, starring Bruce Springsteen, took a decade to build, according to Olivier François, an automotive marketing executive who has become known for convincing A-list celebrities to appear in such ads.
Every year since 2011, François said he presented an idea to Springsteen’s manager Jon Landau for a Super Bowl commercial. It has become somewhat traditional, although François felt that there was little or no chance of this happening.
Why Springsteen, who had never appeared in a commercial before? It goes back to the automaker’s former CEO, Sergio Marchionne, who died unexpectedly in 2018. The Italian-Canadian businessman was a fan of the singer and used to use his music in presentations and events, linking Springsteen’s personality to that of the company.
“What you see today is really a 10-year history in formation,” François told CNBC. “We started discussing Bruce – about Bruce, not with him, about – with my former boss, Sergio. … He loved Bruce Springsteen’s music.”
François, director of marketing for Jeep’s parent company, Stellantis (formerly Fiat Chrysler), convinced Detroit rapper Eminem and musician Bob Dylan to star in the company’s ads. He even hired Oprah Winfrey for a voiceover once. Last year, François convinced elusive actor Bill Murray to reprise his role in the 1993 film “Groundhog Day” for a Super Bowl ad.
He said his “biggest regret” was not being able to do the commercial with Springsteen while Marchionne was still alive. “My biggest regret today is that they never managed to meet. I always promised him that I would make something happen and I delivered it a little too late,” said Francois.
Because now?
François first introduced Springsteen in a 2012 Super Bowl commercial called “It’s Halftime in America”, which ended up starring actor Clint Eastwood, another celebrity who is not known for appearing in advertisements or for linking to a product or company. The ad featured Eastwood as the country’s coach, urging the United States to learn from the resurgence of Detroit’s auto industry.
François called this year’s ad a “successor” to that commercial, as well as others, like a 2013 Super Bowl commercial called “Farmer”. Both were pro-country cinematographic ads, featuring few real vehicles.
In this year’s commercial “The Middle”, Springsteen is driving an old jeep and talking about a chapel located in the center of the country called US Center Chapel in Lebanon, Kansas. He used the extremely small chapel as a basis for talking about the need for the country to “meet here, in the middle” before the announcement ended with “To the United States of America”. This was followed by a Jeep website and logos, which is celebrating its 80th anniversary in 2021.
Bruce Springsteen (left) with Olivier Francois, director of marketing for Stellantis, during the filming of the company’s announcement in the Super Bowl LV for the Jeep.
Rob DeMartin for Jeep
In a press release, Landau said that as soon as they saw the field, they decided it was something they needed to do.
“Olivier François and I discussed ideas for the past 10 years and when he showed us the outline for ‘The Medium’, our immediate reaction was, ‘Let’s do this,'” he said. “Our goal was to do something surprising, relevant, immediate and ingenious. I think that’s what Bruce did with ‘The Middle’.”
François believes the ad’s message was in line with Springsteen’s beliefs and struck the “right balance” between the company’s goal and that of the singer, who last year narrated a campaign commercial for Joe Biden.
François said Springsteen was closely involved in creating the Jeep ad and worked closely with director Thom Zimny. He wrote and produced the original soundtrack for the commercial with another of his frequent collaborators, Ron Aniello.
The announcement hardly happened
The commercial with Springsteen hardly happened, according to François. After 10 years of being rejected by the singer’s manager, he decided not to launch an idea for Landau for Springsteen.
“I think it’s the first year that I haven’t asked any agency to try to break a Bruce Springsteen idea,” he said. “I think it took me 10 years to understand that this will never happen. Obviously, I was wrong, but that’s what I thought. It was also an abuse of John Landau and Bruce’s time.”
Bruce Springsteen starred and narrated a two-minute ad for the Jeep in the Super Bowl, which featured far more American culture and scenery than any vehicle.
Rob DeMartin for Jeep
That is until the advertising agency Doner, from Southfield, Michigan, launched the idea of ”The Middle”. After contacting Landau to say Happy New Year in early January, François decided to send the advertising agency’s proposal to him. François said that Landau, upon receiving the launch, believed it was “the right message”.
“Yes, he stands, but he stands in the middle,” said Francois. “It is not liberal. It is not republican. It is just something that is trying to defend the non-political. Common ground.”
The message seems to have resonated with viewers. Since it was posted to YouTube on Sunday morning, the ad has been viewed about 24 million times. This is almost four times more than the combined audience for other automotive ads from General Motors’ Super Bowl, Toyota Motor and online car salesman Vroom.