by Ronnie Schreiber, Chevy SSR Forum editor
Not content with just using the Chevy SSR as a halo vehicle for their entire line of cars and trucks, Chevrolet is using "product placement" to get the sport pickup and the Chevrolet brand in the public eye. The concept of product placement started when the movie industry realized that instead of avoiding the use of branded products in movies in order to not give a consumer item free advertising, they could reduce their own production costs and increase cross-marketing and cross-merchandising opportunities by bringing consumer product companies into the film development circle. Now, the actors and directors are careful to make sure that you see the Pepsi or Budweiser logo on that can, and major car companies are happy to provide vehicles for use in films. Steven Spielberg's Minority Report had Tom Cruise driving a futuristic Lexus and Lexus returned the favor by promoting the movie on the auto show circuit with the same vehicle. GM even dressed up Chevy SUVs with Cadillac trim for the latest Terminator sequel, because the long lead time for the release of the movie meant that the Caddy that GM wanted to hype wasn't far enough in development yet.
Now Chevy is taking product placement a step further by associating itself with a couple of American icons, Barbie and KFC.
photo credit: Daniel Acker / Bloomberg News
Mattel, facing serious competition from both Bratz and American Girl dolls has decided to give Barbie a radical change in direction. Though much of the media attention on Mattel's new marketing strategy focused on the fact that Barbie was dumping Ken for a new Australian surfer boyfriend, she's also getting a new ride. Starting in the fall, Barbie will be driving an ultra-violet Chevy SSR, which will expose the truck to an entire generation of future car buyers. Over the past four decades, Mattel has always made sure that Barbie had a cool car. Her first car was an Austin Healey. In fact, if you can find one of the Barbie Healey's in good condition it might be worth more money that a real 100-6 or 3000. In the late 1990s, as SUVs and trucks became more popular Barbie got a Jeep. However, the car most closely associated with Barbie has been the Corvette, with the statuesque doll having a series of pink Vettes sold as accessories. With the longstanding relationship between Mattel and Chevrolet well established, it probably wasn't too difficult for the bowtie guys to pitch Mattel on giving their signature product her own version of Chevy's new signature product. The Barbie SSR will be part of a line of Barbie "Cali Girl" accessories released in the fall of 2004, with a CD player built into the toy truck, so Barbie fans will be able to play the new Barbie CDs released at the same time. My guess is that many SSR owners will be first in line at the toy stores to get the truck/cd player when it arrives at the toy stores.
In addition to getting America's most famous blonde to drive a SSR, the vehicle is now appearing in an ad campagin for KFC. KFC is promoting a new boneless version of their Original Recipe chicken, so a modern retromobile is perfect for promoting a new twist on a classic idea. The commercial shows a man and a woman standing near a yellow SSR. Like many commercials these days, it's based around the tiresome and sexist "stupid guy straightened out by a wise woman" meme, with the woman making comments like 'timeless yet modern', and the man thinking that she's talking about the truck, until it's revealed that she's describing fried chicken from KFC. While the commercial makes men out to be idiots, at least the SSR is given star treatment. For info on the ad campaign, Chevy SSR Forum contacted KFC's new advertising agency, Foote, Cone & Belding and Kurt Fires, FC&B senior vice president and creative director was gracious enough to answer our questions.
Q: Why the SSR?
A: The goal of the ad was to introduce the Original Recipe breast Filet. The ad was designed to dramatize the fact that this was an updated - boneless - version of the classic Original Recipe chicken that KFC is famous for. While searching for a simple way to communicate this, we settled on using the analogy of the automobile. There seems to be a trend in the auto industry of taking classic cars and updating them for today. The SSR fit the bill perfectly. It's muscle car power and looks, combined with its innovative technology worked to dramatize the point we were making like no other new car offering.
Q: Whose idea was it to use the SSR? Did the idea originate with KFC or FCB?
A: FCB
Q: Was Chevrolet involved in the ad's production?
A: We received approval to showcase the SSR.
Q: Are KFC and FCB happy with the response so far?
A: Everyone is extremely happy with ad.
Q: The demographics for the SSR, at least in terms of those buying it, tend towards older baby boomers. Was this factor considered? What is the target audience for the ad?
A: Absolutely, in much the same way that I'm sure GM was targeting a consumer that not only remembered, but wanted to recapture the best of the past glory days in regards to automobiles, we had the same goal - only with chicken.