As is the case every year, controversy and acclaim has followed the many (expensive) Super Bowl ads that some marketing teams spend all year working on. Automakers in particular spend big bucks on making ads that stick with customers, Chrysler’s “Imported from Detroit” series being one recent success story.
This year Alfa Romeo spent the most money on ad time for a bunch of mostly forgettable ads, but Ford’s “Go Further” ad has generated a lot of buzz for both its humor and the introduction of a new kind of Blue Oval mobility.
The ad hinges on Ford’s “Go Further” tagline that has carried it since 2012 and features an array of regular people stuck in amusingly frustrating situations. There’s the guy locked out of his house, a kid trying to unlodge a stock basketball, and an adorable toddler stuck upside-down after his trike tips over. He’s no Darth Vader kid, but the light-hearted ad was well-received and controversy free, at least as far as politics are concerned.
Yet the content of the commercial did raise some eyebrows in terms of Ford’s new mobility services that include bike-sharing and on-demand ride services designed to keep you going further. This is something Ford has been talking about for some time at certain industry events, but it’s the first time the general public has been introduced to the idea.
Ford also slipped in a bit about electric and self-driving vehicles, but for the growing population of Americans living in cities, the bike and ride-sharing services could be seen as a big boon.
Suffice to say, it wasn’t your typical car commercial.