Cadillac said 2017 would be a year to flex its marketing muscles ahead of its first all-new product, the Cadillac XT4 crossover, next year. So far, we’ve seen major ad campaigns from the brand at the 2017 Oscars and the MTV Video Music Awards. However, one ad garnered much more attention this year.
If you’ll recall, Cadillac grabbed audiences with its “Carry” advertisement, which debuted during the Oscars this year. The ad featured scenes of protest and calamity following the 2016 presidential election. However, Cadillac attempted to bridge the spectrum with a unifying tone and painted the brand as one for all. “We’ve had the privilege to carry a century of humanity,” the ad proclaims while showing photos of Muhammad Ali and former President Eisenhower.
The brand’s CMO Uwe Ellinghaus recently commented on the political risks the brand took when releasing the ad, but as it turns out, the ad was well received on every side of the political spectrum.
“Some [brands] just got a shit storm on social media for their efforts,” he said at the ANA Masters of Marketing conference in Orlando, Florida, reported by Ad Week. With the ad, Cadillac wanted to speak to all sides, well aware the 45th President of the United States, Donald Trump, represents the brand. He is chauffered in Cadillac limousine, the Beast, with a new Cadillac limo forthcoming.
“It’s a credible source if it comes from Cadillac that we say dear America, we need to come together,” he said. “We didn’t want to fuel the political divide; we wanted to transcend it.”
Ellinghaus recalls he received a letter from Breitbart News calling the ad the best pro-Trump spot it had seen. Following that, readers of The New York Times contacted the CMO and said it was the best anti-Trump ad.
Clearly, Cadillac’s message resonated on both sides of the political spectrum.
Comments
““Some [brands] just got a shit storm on social media for their efforts,” he said at the ANA Masters of Marketing conference in Orlando, Florida, reported by Ad Week. With the ad, Cadillac wanted to speak to all sides, well aware the 45th President of the United States, Donald Trump, represents the brand. He is chauffered in Cadillac limousine, the Beast, with a new Cadillac limo forthcoming.”
How does Trump represent the Cadillac brand?
Is this an Ellinghaus quote? Interesting vocabulary. The *best* words.
Well, it shows that if you do it right, it’s all-inclusive – appeals to young/older, left/right – it’s a human message, not a demographically targeted one.
That said, it’s not super good. And as far as I can tell, another expensive media buy and production that aired once, from what I can tell.
I thought maybe it gained some fame on YouTube, but those numbers are low, too.
Wonder why their big productions (like this) don’t air more on Oscars/Kentucky Derby/VMAs/pre-roll on Game of Thrones, etc..
Glad it gave Uwe something to talk about, but it wasn’t as defining as Apple’s 1984 …
If I’d seen this back during 1968, I’d have thought it was a nice, effective ad. Right now it just looks like a phony attempt at “feel good” via recycling other people’s ad ideas. And it only aired once, during the Oscars? I don’t watch the Oscars. If this is Uwe’s best work, it’s past time for a new marketing director.
I also don’t think Uwe’s choice of words “s**t storm” is very classy. I realize he’s German and may think that’s mainstream American vocabulary, but it isn’t. Another example of why Cadillac should have an American with deep roots in the USA to run the marketing and brand.
“Another example of why Cadillac should have an American with deep roots in the USA to run the marketing and brand.”
So what would be the minimum number of familial generations to be classified as ‘deep roots’? Do you want them Protestant or Catholic? Will there be a paper-bag test? Will you make a distinction between applicants who say ‘pop’ instead of ‘soda’?
Typical misleading and divisive comment by Grawbuddy. Look, if you want to sell the cars of an American icon, you have to have a deep understanding of American culture and where Cadillac stands within that culture.
I’m talking brand marketing here, not product specifically. Engineers can come from anywhere, but marketers and brand managers have to know the territory (to quote The Music Man). Specifically a German and a little girl with parents from Taiwan do not have deep roots in American culture. Sorry if that sounds like Xenophobic bias, but it’s actually the reality of branding. Those with deep roots grow up with their parents and neighbors immersing them in the culture of the country.
If I were trying to sell product to Japan, I would want people with deep roots in Japanese culture in charge of the brand and marketing efforts. The engineering itself could come from anywhere.
As I mentioned, Uwe does not understand when he’s using crude American slang and alienating customers. Johan does not understand that when he says Cadillacs need to be in the “right driveways”, he’s ignorant of Cadillac’s early history of deliberately not selling to African Americans (because they weren’t the “right driveways”, according to some). When Melody is in charge of an ad campaign to recruit “alt-right” groups to show diversity, again she shows that she has little understanding of American culture. Or when she says that New York City has always been ahead of the rest of the country, she’s not only ignorant of US culture, but she’s (unintentionally?) insulting.
Grawbuddy, I realize that you are Canadian and you think there is no such thing as an American luxury car, American culture, or American branding. The fact is that Cadillac’s rich history in the hearts of Americans is a brand distinction that Cadillac should use in a positive way. Again, if I were going to market something to Canadians, I’d want to get the views of real Canadians, not recent immigrants, on Canadian culture. That’s not Xenophobic, that’s merely understanding the majority of the customer base.
However, I know you aren’t the typical Canadian since you hate ice hockey, so I would not hire you to market to other Canadians. My Canadian market expert would have to like ice hockey, say “eh” frequently, use the pronunciation “PRO-ject” rather than “Prah-ject”, wear a tuque, drink ale, and eat donuts at Tim Horton’s. So stop being such a hoser, and thinking that anyone can be a marketing expert anywhere in the world, even if they have little or no connection with the basic culture of that territory.
So should Uwe’s replacement pronounce tomatoes as “toe-may-toes” or “tuh-may-tuhs”?
“So should Uwe’s replacement pronounce tomatoes as “toe-may-toes” or “tuh-may-tuhs”?
Francisco – some people also say “tuh-mah-toes”. But the answer is …. “tuh-may-ters”. Thanks for asking.
Sounds more like a person for Chevy than Cadillac to me *shrugs*
Francisco, as I said (below), Uwe’s replacement should be able to understand the difference between US cultural parody and US cultural reality. Uwe would probably be scratching his head over the whole “tomato” thing, especially my response to your question.
An American icon like Cadillac needs and deserves someone who “gets it”, not a German transplant who spent decades thinking BMW was everything and Cadillac was nothing. And it doesn’t deserve a little girl who admits she never gave any thought to owning Cadillac until she was offered a job there. No wonder Cadillac sales keep tanking in the USA.
Drew as always you have some great points.
When I watch football or golf on Sunday, I see at least 1 ad for MB, BMW, and Acura (MB seems to favor golf), but I have never once seen a Cadillac ad, at least not from “the new Cadillac”. I watch a variety of TV channels and to be blunt, it seems like Caddy’s target audience is everyone but the traditional straight white American. They have ads on BET, any channel that is primarily reality TV, and all award shows. Rarely do they advertise on any sporting events, the evening news, or “average” channels like TBS or Food Network. I would be happy to bet anyone $1000 that less than 20% of Cadillac’s demographic cares about any of that liberal Hollywood BS. I’m just guessing that most sports car buyers are men, yet NO CTS/ATS ads on the channels that men primarily watch.
Secondly, I totally agree about the clueless foreigners currently ruining Cadillac. I’m not a racist person, but only Americans should run American companies, especially ones with such prominent history, Cadillac is one of the few things that is synonymous with America, just like football and apple pie. Its like putting a farmer in charge of an Elementary school, or putting a landscaper in charge of a 5-star restaurant, they are both great in their respective fields, but worthless once they leave those fields.
Henry, yes it’s definitely not “racist” to say that the top executives need to understand the culture into which they are selling. The USA is by far the most important market to Cadillac, so it’s silly for Cadillac to have so many top executives – including the CEO – who have little or no grounding in American culture, and no appreciation for Cadillac prior to getting jobs with the brand.
It would be one thing if Cadillac were a brand that was never successful. It’s quite another when we are talking about the #1 luxury brand in the US market, decade after decade after decade. The people who want to throw out Cadillac’s history and start over again – that’s insane when you are talking about a brand so beloved that Cadillac became synonymous with “the best” (e.g. “the Cadillac of outdoor grills”)
I read an interview with Uwe where he said that NYC “is head and shoulders with any city”. I suppose he meant “head and shoulders above other cities”? Or is he saying it’s just as good as any other city, therefore why not locate there? Whatever he’s doing, he’s not using the actual language of Americans. Which is understandable, he’s German. But his problem with the language belies his lack of understanding of the US public at large.
Uwe further said that what makes NYC successful is that the city constantly reinvents itself, and that Cadillac therefore needs to reinvent itself. Well obviously Uwe – who knows only BMW – wants Cadillac to drop its history and imitate BMW. And he’s using a flawed NYC analogy to sell the “reinvention”. But NYC is successful because of its port location, because it is the financial hub of the USA, and because of its past history as such. The “reinvention” thing is just a marketing con job from Uwe. Or another lack of understanding by him.
Uwe also talks about putting ads on the Oscars, and nothing about advertising on sports events. As you point out, an American who knows Cadillac’s history would realize that very few Americans watch the Oscars, and those who do tend to automatically dislike anything with an American label. He’s advertising where the customers aren’t, and never will be. Yet as a foreigner, he has no clue he is doing this. Just as he doesn’t quite grasp the language.
I’m of German ancestry myself, but I would never dream that I could effectively manage a brand in Germany. Could I sell a totally unique product to Germans? Sure. But cars are not totally unique (there are many brands to choose from), and Cadillac plans to end what made them Cadillacs in the first place. If you are going to make a copycat product, you better have very good branding, and in that case you better know your customers.
I watched the Ken Burns “Vietnam War” series when it aired recently on PBS. One of the obvious problems in the first several years for the USA was that it did not even attempt to understand Vietnamese culture. We as Americans were effectively trying to “sell” the war to millions of people, without understanding or even caring to understand that culture. As such, many Vietnamese who might have supported our stated goals of freedom, viewed the US as a foreign power trying to force our ways on them, and they either resisted this or failed to fully support it. GM now seems to think that taking away the Cadillac created by Americans and handing it to foreign executives is the way to go. I can’t possibly see how that will be successful, but it remains to be played out over the next 10 years – for those who need proof.
Funny that Uwe didn’t choose to speak to the very first thing he approved in his new position – the polarizing and, to some, Xenophobic Cadillac ELR commercial.
That was an s-storm on a number of levels: pricing, sales, the #maga vibe.
That would have made an interesting presentation: how-to vs how-not-to. He’s been on both sides of that fence…
Captain Carl, good point. The Cadillac ELR commercial was essentially a caricature of “right driveway” snobbery, and not how potential Cadillac owners are likely to view themselves.
But if you know American culture largely from the outside, you are likely to get a distorted view of it, and not be able to tell the difference between parody and reality. Uwe may have gotten his view of American wealthy by watching “Gilligan’s Island” and observing Mr. Howell.