Advertising: Chrysler Set to Break Flurry of Ads For Corporate, Chrysler, Plymouth

Chrysler is unleashing new campaigns this week for its Chrysler and Plymouth brands, as well as new corporate advertising that attempts to show off the no. 3 carmaker as an innovator of design through the decades since Walter Chrysler was running things.
The new Chrysler brand theme, "Engineered to be Great Cars," plays off the company's corporate tagline, "Great Cars. Great Trucks." The line, which replaces, "What's new in your world," is meant to better position Chrysler branded vehicles as "premium," said Jay Kuhnie, division communications manager at Chrysler-Plymouth. The campaign, by Bozell, Detroit, breaks Sept. 19 with spots that tout the Cirrus, Sebring coupe and convertible, and Town & Country minivan.
Chrysler is hoping the new position can boost sales of Chrysler brand, which has underperformed expectations, and close the gap between what the company feels is the reality of Chrysler brand cars and the lingering perception of dullness left over from the brand's dowdy days in the 1970s and '80s. Chrysler cars got $190 million in ad spending last year, a level expected to increase 10% this year. Chrysler sales are off 7.3% through August, and its share is down to 1.9%.
New Chrysler brand ads are running in sports and late night, including ABC Nightline, The Tonight Show, and ABC and CBS College Football.
Plymouth, a brand that five years ago was expected to fold, gets its tagline clipped from, "One clever idea after another. That's Plymouth," to just "That's Plymouth," in a new campaign also breaking this week. In one spot, a man sitting on his front porch watches one Plymouth drive by after another. His wife urges his restraint, but he can't help himself when the brand new Prowler roadster goes by, and he springs off the porch after it, only to be jerked back by a tether. "He'll never learn," says his wife.
It's the only spot that contains the new Plymouth Prowler, an unusual retro-designed roadster that has been featured widely in the press and, Chrysler, hopes, will impart a buzz of interest around the rest of the Chryslers and Plymouths in the showrooms.
Plymouth is expected to get a 10% increase over its 1996 spend of $183 million, even though its sales are off 6.4% through August, and its share is down to 2.1%. The brand spot is supported by eight product-specific print ads and eight TV spots, the latter running in prime-time, including Dateline NBC, and late-night network, including The Tonight Show. Ads juxtapose recognizable icons with counterpoints--for example, pebbles to Stonehenge, a goldfish to whales, and a toy monkey to a real gorilla--as metaphors for the "surprising value" that one will find in a Plymouth.
"Every Plymouth is designed to exceed expectations of product content and value," said Martin Levine, general manager of the C/P/J/E division.
In the new corporate spots, Chrysler keeps its "Great Cars. Great Trucks" tagline, but uses its history to showcase its present day designs, such as one spot that segues from the 1963 Jeep Wagoneer to the current Grand Cherokee. The 1941 "woody" Town & Country wagon is shown as the forerunner of today's T&C minivan. The corporate campaign, supported by a $50 million budget, has five TV spots and seven print ads, as well as postcard ads that are being distributed at restaurants and entertainment venues across the country, and at Chrysler's interactive center at the Mall of America in Minneapolis.
Chrysler keeps the venerable, "There's Only One," tagline for Jeep this year, breaking a new brand spot on Sept. 27. In it, a hiker gets hurt and his dog goes for help. The pooch passes on a rescue helicopter, a police car and a competitive sport utility, not stopping until he reaches a Jeep dealership. He returns triumphantly as a passenger in a Jeep Wrangler to rescue his master. "We are pretty much reaffirming our position and brand equity this year," said Jeep national ad manager Diane Jackson. "With Jeep, we find its best to let the product do most of the talking."
Jeep sales are off 8.3% through August, a disappointment that is in part due to pent-up demand for the new V-8 powered Grand Cherokee and explosive sales for the Ford Expedition.
The Eagle division, now with just the Talon, gets only regional support, as the struggling brand is expected to be folded in the next two years or so.