Jeep is new Super Bowl Commercial, “The Middle”, starring Bruce Springsteen and a 1980 CJ-5, debuted only during the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl LV, and is typical of an automaker Big Game Ads. In other words, it is ambitious and moving, with a growing message that is much more about who we are as a nation and as a people than about the business of selling cars and trucks.
Filmed over five days in late January, the long-format ad features rocker Springsteen in his first commercial appearance in his nearly 60-year career. The announcement is a two-minute tug of rope that urges a bitterly divided America to come to terms with itself, a call to action by the United States of America.
The ad focuses on a church in Lebanon, Kansas, which is in the geographical environment of Lower 48. “It is no secret … the environment has been a difficult place to reach recently. Between red and blue. Between servant and citizen. Between our freedom and our fear “, says The Boss. The fact that Springsteen’s narration sounds like the lyrics to one of his songs is no coincidence. Stellantis (formerly Fiat Chrysler Automobiles) says the artist was closely involved with the writing and scoring of the film.
While celebrating Jeep’s 80th anniversary, the long ad shows only fragments of the brand’s iconic vehicles – mostly the 80’s CT-5, but also an early 1965 version that appears in the background. The ad never shows a single new Wrangler or Gladiator. Not showing a new model is an unusual departure from the typical new car ad formula, but the automaker has driven this rare route before, and Meio is arguably even more powerful for that.
Once again planned by Olivier François, the automaker’s marketing director, this ad is no different in its patriotic ambition and borderline political gravity America’s Chrysler range announcement featuring Clint Eastwood, and Farmer, which featured the narration of the late radio personality Paul Harvey. In contrast, last year’s successful announcement groundhog day, who saw Bill Murray replaying his iconic performance in cinema, was a bit light, but no less watchable.
“The Middle” aired in its full two-minute form during the Super Bowl, but will only air online after that. You can watch here and now.
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