Want a selfie with Melody Lee at this year’s Oscars? While that may or may not happen due to a number of factors, Cadillac will grace the B&B’s viewing parties with its presence.
Forbes reports the premium brand will walk the red carpet in an all-new advertising campaign gown, showing off both its revamped brand positioning and new tagline during the telecast of the annual awards ceremony February 22, followed by the debut of the CT6 at the 2015 New York Auto Show in April.
Cadillac’s goal with the campaign, per CMO Uwe Ellinghaus, is to “disrupt” how everyone views the brand, hopefully doing a better job than the time Kimmy K tried to break the Internet with her backside. Parent company General Motors became the exclusive automobile advertiser in 2014 after Hyundai stepped away, with both Chevrolet and Cadillac airing spots during the pre-show and main event.
As for New York, the brand will debut a new auto-show display design at the show, with the aim of differentiating itself from other premium, more Teutonic marquees. Ellinghaus explains the motive:
As an American brand, Cadillac can be bolder, more expressive and use more of a human touch, because we are not German. We need to get to one “look-and-see” the world over.
Meanwhile, Cadillac’s presence at next week’s 2015 Detroit Auto Show will be more subdued, focusing upon the 640-horsepower, 200-mph 2016 CTS-V premium performance sedan.
Oh, now you’ve done it…
(Gets chair and popcorn)
I thought of him the moment this piece was chosen for today’s summaries!
Does anyone recall the episode of South Park where Cartman saw the couple who had a congenital defect that had their a$$es where their faces should be?
(I find myself relaying my feelings, thoughts & emotions more frequently vis-a-vis South Park episodes in our New Abnormal, lately)
Anyways…Cartman, upon seeing them, lost his ability to mock, ridicule, and even, to laugh.
This is how I feel regarding Cadillac today, Friday, December 9, 2015.
Ahem, its January. December 9th happened to be one of the worst days of my life.
See!
Melody CT-Lee & Johan The Zohan have got me so flustered that I fear I’ve lost track of the month.
I like that Johan the Zohan, but I declare Miss Lee shall be known as CT Mel-o-dy. She hates model names so much, she can be one.
” December 9th happened to be one of the worst days of my life”
I’m sorry to hear that :(
The bad news is you’re young, you have a lot of worse days to look forward to :D
“The worst events in life are the ones we never saw coming, so are the best”
You have my condolences. *big hugs*
@Lie2me, Cameron
Thx (esp for the Cameron sourced hug!).
There is an irony to your comment Lie2Me but I honestly don’t want to go into it right now.
One thing I now know: there are no coincidences.
Actually, this makes perfect sense for Cadillac.
Lest no one forget Cadillac’s recent fashionista dancing assembly robots fashion runway/catwalk commercial:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxtK1BF3vO4
@lie2me I spit my drink out laughing when I saw your comment. Oh God. ha ha ha
Yup. Counting down…
“As an American brand, Cadillac can be bolder, more expressive and use more of a human touch, because we are not German.”
-said the German-
South African, actually. Of Dutch ancestry, most likely.
Why do people really find watching this crap to be a good use of their time?
Because it’s a glitzy glamorous fantasy world of pretense and illusion, a lot like Cadillac headquarters
I guess the question is….is this where thier demographic is? Most people I know don’t watch the oscars.
“Cadillac’s goal with the campaign, per CMO Uwe Ellinghaus, is to “disrupt” how everyone views the brand”
Translation: Per Pen Boy we will further confuse and irritate you with more bizarre marketing newspeak and lackluster product offerings. FORWARD!
“Cadillac’s presence at next week’s 2015 Detroit Auto Show will be more subdued, whose focus will be upon the 640-horsepower, 200-mph CTS-V premium performance sedan”
So will this be the MY16 Alpha or will it be the still on sale Sigma II MY14 variant?
“Pen Boy”, aka “Skippy”
Psst… Skippy likes CT Mel-o-dy, pass it on.
This is the new Alpha CTS-V. The Sigma one has “only” 556 horsepower…
Thx.
“We are not German,” but we will copy the German’s naming structure.
Is it possible an entire automotive division needs psychological therapy? Could we pull Frasier Crane out of retirement and send him to Detroit, er New York?
“We are not German”
“To establish parameters around which they would design the ATS, GM engineers benchmarked the 1999-2006 BMW E46 3 Series, which ATS chief engineer Dave Masch and his team regarded as the most dynamic and driver-focused iteration of the 3 Series”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadillac_ATS
Classic denial, so Pen Boy please tell me more about your father.
Cadillac is trying too hard to be cool and hip. You can’t tell people, it has to happen naturally, which is why this will never work. The problem Cadillac has is that they marketed for years to an older crowd. People that like plaid interiors and Continental tires. Last week I was stuck behind some lady driving a DTS 10 miles under the speed limit with her foot on the brakes the entire time. Half of her LED brake lights were busted she rides the brakes so much. That’s a Cadillac driver. Go ahead and tell me how hip and luxurious you are, I’m going to stick with the understated luxury of the Germans.
After sitting in an ATS at the Ren Cen, there is no comparison to my BMW 330, despite the BMW being 8 years old. The Caddy is a cheap imitation.
Buford T Justice in a BMW 3-series… just seems wrong… didn’t you have a Seville police car in the last movie!?!?
I was partial to the the brown Pontiac LeMans, but I had to ditch it when the roof and doors were torn off.
I did however find a nice set of bull horns for the hood of the Bimmer. Now I’m rolling in style like Boss Hogg!
That reminds me. When I get home, I’m gonna slap yo’ mama…
“People that like plaid interiors and Continental tires”
You mean VW GTI drivers? I hadn’t pictured them as that old.
To be fair, the LED brake lights were dead because the car was crap, not because Grandma was using them too much.
No Ciel/Elmiraj = No point in even showing up. If you don’t have a glamour girl, stay the f- home. Seriously.
And, for what its worth, you can berate this thing for being front-driver with a timebomb motor, but this still makes you want one…I know I do…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pY-pRbu4tk
In fact, just show up with a 2002 Eldorado convertible conversion in White Diamond Tricoat and call it a day. You’ll get more positive attention.
There has to be a way to fix it, either a 3800 or LS4 conversion. SOMETHING.
Just do the g-damn time-serts and deal with oil seepage. That’s what I do with my Aurora and my life is filled with unbridled elegance…
Or just lie and put it up on Craigslist as “Needs Water Pump or Thermostat” and take a loss like everyone else with a Northstar does…
“Just do the g-damn time-serts and deal with oil seepage”
But that’s letting the terrorists win.
Northstar Jihad FTW
A 640 hp 200 mph sedan isn’t worth showing?
To us, its a 640hp 200mph automotive marvel – to everyone else, its a CTS with a bunch of stuff bolted on to it and a hood scoop.
No one get me wrong, I’m a GM guy and Cadillac guy as well. Always have been, always will be. My father has been for the past 40 years. I’ll never have anything but GM product registered in my name and that’s how stupid I am. I own that. But I’m also realistic. And when you have as many people watch the Oscars as you do, you need to make a statement and that statement is made with something truly special, both visually and as an automobile.
Nailed it! Horsepower does not equal glamor. You don’t bring a Clydesdale to the Kentucky Derby
If someone did enter a Clydesdale in the Derby, though, I’d bet on it taking show.
2010 Black Raven DTS with magnaride.
How does a Brand Identity grace a red carpet. Is it alive?
” premium brand will walk the red carpet in an all-new advertising campaign gown” The brand walks?
This is not English, nor hip. Just bad writing.
Sorry Cameron,
Cadillac is a starlet, the next J-Law or Anne Hathaway, if you will. Her new branding campaign is the wonderful and/or tacky gown Ryan Seacrest will ask about during the pre-show red-carpet ceremony.
The brand positioning is her manicure, which E! will have her “walk” in front of their tiny red carpet before sneaking in a mischievous middle finger; it’s live TV, after all.
Her new tag line is her signature accessory. Perhaps, like Kristen Stewart, she doesn’t wear shoes at all. Or, she used to wear shoes, but decided heels weren’t worth the pain, and she’s tall enough as it is.
In short, it’s anthropomorphization. That’s how our young starlet, Cadillac, can walk the Oscars’ red carpet.
“Cadillac is a starlet”
No, Cadillac is Norma Desmond who having had too many facelifts thinks she’s a starlet, abandoned by her public surrounds herself with a bunch of “yes men” who agree with her
“I’m ready for my close-up, Mr. De Ville”
The Oscar tie-in is nothing short of a Greek tragedy
That works, too.
Lie2me, your Sunset Boulevard reference was hilarious. One of my all time favorite films.
Tori Spelling
Wait this article is satire? I thought I was actually reading that Caddy was planning to advertise at the Oscars by having some celebrity wear a Cadillac themed gown, which I think is a cool idea. I wonder what else goes flying over my head?
You’ve got it, an Oscar nominee will be wearing an original whorehouse red crushed velor evening gown with a padded vinyl bra with “Fleetwood Brougham” scripted across her boobs
A fashion statement like no other
Ahh yes, the American Hustle Collection.
No fair peeking
Well, Ellinghaus did imply that Germans are soulless automatons in his quote, so you can see how the whole “more human than human” trope can get confusing.
The brand will be personated by a classy but aging up-and-coming actress, Cathy Lack, who will wear a multicolored coat of arms and a tiara of chrome laurel leaves.
Our cars suck!
So, what we need is…
New TV commercials!
Whenever some Marketroid talks about “disrupting” a brand, you know that the impending actions are going to make sense to executive-types, but no sense whatsoever to mere mortals. (You know, those mere mortals who actually buy cars.)
I do not think Oscar viewers are the type to buy gm vehicles and I don’t think that’s going to change anytime soon. At least dodge jeep and chrysler seem to know their audiences.
GM is run by a bunch of clowns. Look at the Buick commercial where the couple clearly is living in a multi-million dollar home and are somehow salivating and staring jealously at their neighbor’s Buick crossover from their $100,000 kitchen. It’s like they are not grounded in reality.
I don’t understand anything in this story.
Yeah, very confusing. Such snark that the reporting is lost.
In plain English:
Cadillac is going to run some new TV commercials during the Academy Awards broadcast.
If you believe that TV commercials are actually newsworthy, this may be of interest to you. Personally, I don’t believe that TV commercials are news.
Thank you. I can’t stand the Academy Awards, so I don’t watch them.
As much as I like car stuff, I find most car commercials to be stupid. I suppose the Cadillac ads would be tops.
Automobile marketing is huge and every bit as newsworthy as the cars the manufactures make. Think of the clever ad campaigns from years ago of Volkswagen (simple/utilitarian/economical) and Volvo (safety/dependable/upscale) and it makes sense
Yea, what the heck does “We need to get to one “look-and-see” the world over.” mean?
One look and see means having a consistent tag line, logo and other visual material across the world. Just like BMW has the same logo, tag line and overall feel in Europe, the US and elsewhere.
Most companies seem to be going this way.
Is GM management right out of a Dilbert cartoon or what????
Let not only the “brand” Cadillac die,but the whole darn corporate entity as well.
The fact that the home office has corporate officers who would sign off on this stupidity means its way too late to make marketing the whipping horse for the ultimate failure of Cadillac,when so many more are to blame.
What a complete and utter waste of my tax dollars.
Your tax dollars aren`t being wasted on this now since the Government has sold all its stake.
Not to mention they’ve chosen to headquarters the brand in a city where most people don’t own cars. Makes just about as much sense as putting the HQ for a shipbuilder in Topeka.
Topeka? Why not? It’s been done before – during WWII, the shipyard in Evansville, Indiana employed 19,000 people.
This reminds me of the “Comparing Cars to Fashion” posts that TTAC was enamored with for a while. Perhaps the “Brand Directors” at Cadillac have been reading the archive at TTAC?
I remember that one. It was after the 2012 NYIAS, and I used my Polyvore account to make collages of what the cars would be like if they were women, and what they would wear if they were. Good times.
I’m glad we got to know you better.
Aww! Me, too!
He even looks like a MBA Twit.
Is “Bold” their new MBA buzzword du jour. I can’t imagine any Hollywood/idiot box watcher would be persuaded by this retarded MBA crap.
It’s easy to be amused by marketing talk but the brand is the main asset a luxury car maker has. The brand building weirdness is spreads across the luxury spectrum with Mercedes more worried about about the average consumer’s association of its brand with quail hunting and executive retreats then they are concerned about the dreadful transmission in the CLA.
I guess most luxury car makers have figured out that they cannot compete with non-luxury brands in any objective and material comparison so they focus on image and exclusivity instead. Nysschen may well have been right about lux makers not wanting to be car brands – they want to be luxury brands like Luis Vuitton, Tag Heuer and Chanel.
“Nysschen may well have been right about lux makers not wanting to be car brands – they want to be luxury brands like Luis Vuitton, Tag Heuer and Channel.”
Except that Johan the Zohan never stated such, stating that it’s all about product (which means they never have to cut their prices as they did yesterday).
CT-Melody “Got My Red Jimmy Choos On” Lee made such comments as she stroked her pet rock during an interview after just concluding another “Who I Wear To Work” business magazine interview for an article.
What I Wear to Work: Cadillac’s Melody Lee
By Arianne Cohen
September 25, 2014
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-09-25/what-i-wear-to-work-cadillacs-melody-lee
Trust me, click that article link.
It features an interactive screenshot of Melody where you can click on her jewelry, clothing articles or shoes to understand the reason/motivation/psyche of the how’s/why’s/what’s that her mind assumes when she puts such things on her petite frame.
It’s HILARIOUS, and written by:
Arianne Cohen, the author of The Sex Diaries Project: What We’re Saying About What We’re Doing (John Wiley & Sons).
OK, I went to your link, DW, and she’s every bit as unintentionally funny as can be.
But are you sure that photo isn’t really the Nut Rage lady? Granted, she and Melody are clones so I guess either would do.
DW you must have missed my analysis in the other article:
Corporate politics allow many incompetent or otherwise people to not only have jobs, but thrive. in CT Mel-o-dy’s case I would guess the reasons she is still employed would be: (1) natively speaking Mandarin, (2) EEO quotas in this country, and possibly (3) never hurts to be physically alluring in a male dominated industry and also to act as a press object. You have no idea how attractive native Mandarin speakers are right now from a hiring perspective. The woman’s title is apparently: “director of brand and reputation strategy for Cadillac” which is a completely made up requisition *I guarantee*. If they hired her for her skills she’d be a director or VP of marketing or something to that effect. Her title suggests she is to meant be a pretty girl who manages Facebook likes and *who can also be sent to GM’s huge operations in China and speak for Detroit*. Bingo in my mind.
https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2015/01/cadillacs-strange-fruit/#comment-4848929
Re: What I Wear to Work: Cadillac’s Melody Lee
Hah! I rarely visit Bloomberg News and I always thought it was a more serious site. But this looks like something I imagine would be in People Magazine. If she is indicative of the Cadillac driver, I prefer to stay far away.
To be fair, I believe Melody is just doing the will of the corporation as best she knows how. I’m not calling for her firing. Where would all the comedic material come from otherwise?
I’m continually amused at how the B&B commenters on the numerous threads about Cadillac lately feel they have the complete (and obvious, in their collective opinion) answer to all the manufacturer’s ills:
1. Bring back all the old names, with RWD V-8s only
2. Reduce the price of the vehicles to undercut the Germans by $20 to $30k each
3. Fire Melody Lee because they don’t like her opinions about luxury brand image
4. Move Cadillac’s world headquarters back to Detriot, because that is where they belong
5. I forget what 5. is
6. Profit
If only it were that simple, guys and gals. Johann has been in the job, what, less than a year? Jeez Louise how about giving the guy a chance to turn things around? Duke University basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski was absolutely detested by fans for his first three years there (1980-3) because everyone was certain that his teams had to play zone defense instead of the man-to-man that Mike insisted on. Thirty years later, Mike was right and the basketball critics were wrong. Johann inherited a mess at Cadillac. It’s not going to be fixed anytime soon, but he has to be given some time to turn this sinking ship around. It seems to me that he and his team are asking the right questions: what is a luxury brand? How do we restore the damaged Cadillac image? Ten years ago Cadillac embarked on a plan to compete with BMW. The CTS and ATS arguably do that. Sales tanked.
The man has his work cut out for him. I’m interested to see if he can do it.
And no, I have never owned a Cadillac and probably never will, so I have zero stake in the outcome.
What I’d expect from a relative of Melody LEE.
/s
Coach K inheirited an Elite Eight team. He was rightfully criticized for having a losing record over his first three seasons. He was also right to stick by his players, and his system, even the players that didn’t play well (especially in 1983). There is no Johnny Dawkins at Cadillac though. They don’t have a product that can lead them to from losing to the top of the mountain in two years.
Coack K inherited an Elite Eight team that lost all of its recruiting momentum when Bill Foster went to South Carolina. Johann has arrived at Cadillac with the cupboard similarly bare. Gene Banks was Duke’s equivalent of the Escalade, and Kenny Denard was the equivalent of the CTS. After they graduated at the end of the 80 season, there was nothing but second-rate talent.
Fair point. I am no Blue Devil basketball historian, but I admire Coach K. I am a firm believer that college coaches should almost always get four years. Johann isn’t going to get four model years if sales keep slumping.
Now I want Coack K to run Cadillac.
It is easier to turnaround a poor basketball team since it is results on the court that matter.
Moving up the auto sales chart takes time since peoples perceptions take a long time to change.
JdeN deserves time to see if his plans work. Cadillac isn`t the only luxury auto company to use alphanumerics. Didn`t do Lexus any harm.
P.S. Go Tar Heels.
Agreed, Mike. It takes close to a decade to build a strong product lineup when you are starting from zero. Witness how long Buick’s turnaround has taken. Even longer for a rejuvenation of a luxury brand image. Audi took decades to go from the Fox to the A/S Series with many bumps in the road (5000, 80/90).
I got it: let’s make Matt Doherty take over Cadillac! He’ll do as well as he did with UNC basketball 2000-3. :)
So, if it takes a decade to turn around a brand, do you give the guy ten years, then if he can’t do it, hire another person and give them ten years, and if they can’t…
It’s not about the packaging, it is all about the product. Build something I like and I’ll consider Cadillac again.
What Cadillac needs to do is figure out EXACTLY what people who buy Mercedes, Audi and BMW want in a car, and do that.