Published: April 30, 2018, 1:30 AM
Updated: April 30, 2018, 4:14 PM
Consumers will buy if the right person is pitching
Matthew McConaughey is everywhere these days, pitching the merits of Lincoln products, but the history of automotive endorsements is littered with memorable, and sometimes very odd, performances. From Robert De Niro to Lebron James, you might be surprised how many big stars have lent their celebrity status to help sell automotive products.
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Matthew McConaughey
Matthew McConaughey actually got his start doing commercials, pitching his local newspaper in Texas as the best way to keep up on what his alma mater was doing in sports. From there he went on to music videos and a slew of film roles starting with 1993’s Dazed and Confused. He’s always come across as somebody who marches to his own drummer and is more than willing to tell you about it, which is probably why Lincoln hired him as its spokesperson in 2014 for the debuting MKC crossover, telling stories that philosophically apply to the vehicle he’s driving in that particular commercial.
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Ricardo Montalbán
Cordoba was Chrysler’s first smaller offering in the automotive-downsizing period of the mid-1970s. Its name was meant to hint at the exotic lifestyle enjoyed by people of means, even though the car was meant for buyers of modest tastes. Ricardo Montalbán’s enticing accent and melodious pronunciation were considered an impactful force on increased Cordoba sales, and his famous line “rich Corinthian leather” about the car’s upholstery was one of the most well-known lines in advertising, as well as one of the most satirized.
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Jennifer Lopez
For the North American launch of the Fiat 500, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) enlisted the talents of Jennifer Lopez, to showcase the car in and around the urban landscape for which it was marketed. Lopez also used the marketing campaign to showcase a new song in the 30- and 60-second TV spots, using her international appeal as part of the “My World” advertising campaign. The commercials have been widely panned over the years, mostly for Lopez’s participation in such a perceived self-aggrandizing fashion.
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Tom Hiddleston
British company Jaguar hired British actor Tom Hiddleston to wax poetic about its new F-Type Coupe, using Hiddleston’s charming good looks to forward the persona of the psychopathic villain bent on world domination/destruction, emphasizing the point in his own words — “They say Brits play the best villains, but what makes a great villain? … speak with an eloquence that lets everyone know who’s in charge … razor-sharp like your wit … the means to stay one step ahead. World domination starts with an attention to detail.”
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Jerry Seinfeld
When Acura moved on introducing a new NSX super sport coupe, automotive enthusiasts were waiting on pins and needles for the actual arrival. It was therefore not surprising that celebrity auto enthusiasts such as Jerry Seinfeld would try to claim the first one available, and attempts to buy that exalted model from the person at the top of the wait list. Using a series of vignettes from his long-running sitcom, it seems he may have succeeded in bribing his way to the top spot, until Jay Leno literally swoops in to snag it.
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Matthew Broderick
Using a series of events similar to his break-out role in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Matthew Broderick decides to go on a similar adventure, skipping out on his filming schedule for a day packed with adventure in a Honda CR-V, including participating in a parade, visiting a museum, and even dealing with an unscrupulous parking valet, among others.
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Eminem
Fighting back from bankruptcy, Chrysler enlisted celebrities (including Clint Eastwood in a haunting yet idyllic narrative about the greatness of America and its manufacturing base in Detroit) to help promote its wares. However, the surprising pitchman was Detroit-born rapper Eminem, providing the narrative and soundtrack expounding the resiliency of the Motor City as the car drives through Detroit’s darkened streets to the city’s landmark Fox theatre.
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Jean-Claude Van Damme
Even if you don’t recognize the name, you will likely recognize Jean-Claude Van Damme’s claim to fame as that guy that can do the side splits better than many flexible women. The Belgian martial artist has been wowing audiences the world over for decades with his epic splits, which is undoubtedly why Volvo Trucks signed him up for a stunt involving two transport trucks at speed (there was a safety protocol that included a harness and foot platforms), a stunt that resurrected his career and boosted Volvo Trucks sales by a third.
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Jean Reno
If you want to see bizarre, though, switch the channel to some Asian domestic-market TV and you might see, among others, Brad Pitt in a Cadillac commercial or Jean Reno performing as the live-action version of a cartoon cat, complete with jingle-bell collar, to pitch Toyotas. The French star of films such as Ronin and Mission: Impossible got the starring role as the human version of Manga-character Doraemon, a robot cat sent from the future to help a Japanese youth lead a successful life. And what better way to accomplish that than by driving a Toyota?
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Leonardo DiCaprio
If you’ve been to Japan or China, you’re used to seeing big-name celebrities pitching anything from cigarettes to liquor, so it’s no surprise to discover Leonardo DiCaprio signed on as brand ambassador for Chinese auto manufacturer BYD. It’s not really as far fetched as some other celebrity endorsements, since the make’s dedication to electrification works quite well with the star’s personal commitment to environmental issues.
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Robert De Niro
Like many stars, Robert DeNiro started off doing commercials and one of his memorable ones, mostly because he played a character for which he has become famous, is for the AMC Ambassador. The Ambassador was the flagship sedan of American Motors, and its 7th generation featured a restyle that also saw a substantial increase in size. What better car for a college graduate to leave his old-world family and neighborhood thinking he’s a “big shot?”
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Dustin Hoffman
Before his memorable drive to the church in The Graduate, Dustin Hoffman made a pitch for the then-new Volkswagen 1600, or Type 3 as it was officially called. The Type 3 was the bridge between the Type 1 (Beetle) and Type 2 (Microbus), offering sedan size interiors in 3-box, fastback and wagon bodystyles. The sedan wasn’t that big but looked huge beside the diminutive Hoffman, who extolls the virtues of the rear-wheel drive car with the trunk “up front where most cars have their motors; and in the back, where most cars have their trunks, we have a … heh … a trunk. A large trunk.”
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Leonard Nimoy & Zachary Quinto
Timed to coincide with the launch of the then-new Star Trek Into Darkness film, the commercial featured Spocks past (Leonard Nimoy) and present (Zachary Quinto) involved in a couple contests, starting with a chess match and ending with a drive to the country club, set to an epic orchestral soundtrack. Quinto, in his Audi S7, beats Nimoy, in his Mercedes CLS, to the club but falls victim to the Vulcan nerve pinch before he can enter the club first. As they finish, they see an Audi driver pull up in an autonomous TT and get out, while the car goes off to park itself. “Fascinating.”
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Clive Owen
At the turn of the Century, BMW commissioned a series of short films under the umbrella The Hire. The premise was that of a hired driver, played aptly by Clive Owen, to drive a variety of clients on various “missions.” The films featured other notable stars and directors, and were meant to feature the various performance attributes of BMW vehicles in certain scenarios, such as delivering a transplant-heart to a benevolent statesman through a series of army ambushes, and taking a shallow celebrity to a red-carpet event while reportedly avoiding her bodyguards.
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Will Ferrell
With the long-awaited debut of Anchorman 2, Chrysler hired Will Ferrell’s Ron Burgundy character for a marketing campaign for the Dodge Durango, in which the no-filter newsanchor touts vehicle features such as the fold-flat rear seats, large glove box and engine horsepower, in the character’s inimitable cliché-laden delivery.
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LeBron James
Kia fell madly in love with sports, splaying its name all over the soccer world on the international and local levels, and hitting the hardcourt hard in North America initially with rookie high-flyer Blake Griffin and then with LeBron James. James was introduced as Kia’s luxury ambassador, tapping his celebrity status for the launching K900 premium sedan, which was reportedly “fit for a king.”
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Melissa McCarthy
At the other end of the spectrum, Kia also enlisted Melissa McCarthy to promote its Niro compact crossover hybrid. In the commercial, McCarthy is called upon to lend credence to activist forays for such things as saving the whales, saving trees, saving the ice caps and saving the rhino, all with hilarious circumstances set to the tune of Holding out for a Hero. We don’t see much of McCarthy with the vehicle, but she apparently does spend a lot of time in it while taking hands-free calls for each activist venture.
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Jude Law
In a one-time improvisational skit, Jude Law was hired by Lexus of Europe to drive an RX crossover around London, attempting to bring together various celebrities for a one-of-a-kind show in London’s theater district. The streamed event showed Law signing up celebrities from the RX’s driver’s seat while taking direction from the viewing audience. It ended up in a memorable performance, but the journey of watching (and collaborating on) the making of a marketing event was what made it truly memorable for viewers.
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Peter Fonda
Peter Fonda’s iconic performance in Easy Rider is still talked about to this day, and that’s how the commercial for the Mercedes-AMG GT roadster starts off: in a biker bar where aging riders do all the things for which bikers are notorious — drinking, playing pool, arm-wrestling and rumbling — until one comes rushing in, saying their bikes have been hit. It turns out the culprit is the GT roadster, whose driver turns out to be the Easy Rider himself, Fonda. He acknowledges the bikers and drives off, leaving them agog.
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