Ford Running For The Tea Party?

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

Say what you want about (or against) the latest Ford “Press Conference” ads. But they achieve the holy grail in the ad business: They get talked about. From TTAC to Fox News, the ads are making waves – especially the anti-bailout ad.

Fox likes it especially well. „It’s almost like a tea party ideology,“ praised anchor woman Megyn Kelly the ad that had originally be made for internal consumption at Ford and only recently hit the airwaves.

Kelly and Steve Moore of the Wall Street Journal, talking head on Megyn’s segment, strongly endorsed the purchase of Ford cars. “My next car, I promise you, will be a Ford,” said Moore. Kelly added that the Probe she drove when she was in law school was “hot.” And of course, the ad was shown, in full length.

When your ad becomes news, you don’t have to pay for running it.


Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • JSF22 JSF22 on Sep 17, 2011

    I just enjoy hearing Megyn Kelly say "hot" and "probe" in the same sentence. What was the question again?

  • Advance_92 Advance_92 on Sep 17, 2011

    Taking advantage of a misconception and hoping your customer doesn't realize you're perpetuating a lie? Why would Ford want to be like the Tea Party?

    • APaGttH APaGttH on Sep 17, 2011

      I almost wrote that word for word - but thought about it some more. I don't see this ad changing any minds. It isn't like it is some big secret or unspoken truth that GM/Chrysler went bankrupt and Ford didn't. Buyers know that already - and I don't see this ad having a ton of buyers going, "Ya, YA, YA," and rushing to their Ford dealer in response. As a marketing professional by trade, I would not have gone there as the "strength" in that card is already played out. Advertising on it doesn't get me a whole lot. The great thing is TTAC analyzes the numbers of vehicle sales each month. If I'm wrong, the proof will be in the sales data. Think that is too simplistic? Hampsters sell an awful lot of Kia Souls to people who would never have set foot in a Kia dealership in the first place, don't they. Eminem sure did a lot to drive Chrysler 200 sales volumes. It isn't a big leap to connect the dots. I say this ad doesn't move the needle at all.

  • GeneralMalaise GeneralMalaise on Sep 18, 2011

    Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Gubmint Motors workers get $5K signing bonuses...

  • Solracer Solracer on Sep 18, 2011

    Let me point out a couple of things here that the anti-bailout folks are missing. #1 Ford, Chrysler and GM (not to mention Honda, Toyota and most other companies with large plants in the US) depend on the same set of suppliers. If GM and Chrysler had been allowed to fail and shut down many of those same suppliers would have gone under as well which would likely have taken Ford down as well. #2 While it could validly be argued at the time that the bailouts were risky they *worked*. GM and Chrysler are both going concerns now employing hundreds of thousands of people and while the government has lost some money on the deal the losses are far, far less than what the government would have lost should those hundreds of thousands of people hit the unemployment line. Go ahead and argue against the next government bailout if you want but stop saying that this one was a failure because it wasn't. FYI I also have a new 2011 Ford which I love so don't put me down as one of those "GM lovers" or something because that's not where I'm coming from.

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