Jeep - America Will Be Whole Again: A review of the 2013 Super Bowl commercial

This emotionally charged commercial opens with two impactful and unavoidable quotes that speak directly to the heart of every patriotic American - an appeal on behalf of the troops and a quote from Oprah Winfrey. The rest of the ad, narrated just as exquisitely by Oprah as well, plucks just as masterfully at the heartstrings with wives waiting anxiously, children playing innocently and people waiting eagerly in hope and anticipation. The icing on the cake is when the fighting heroes, come home - In a Jeep Grand Cherokee or a Wrangler and quite fittingly, the new Jeep Patriot which Jeep is primarily trying to market through the campaign. This is a well calibrated ad for an SUV that excellently tie’s together a call to honor and support the USO with an emotionally pressing appeal to purchase the new offering.  

The intended audience that this Ad looks to target are primarily the most patriotic of Americans, both young and old, who are instantly moved by this campaign’s emotional message. The secondary target audience would include socially responsible Americans who would weigh supporting their nation’s heroes more heavily as opposed to simply buying a vehicle that best meets their needs. It also looks to target ardent Jeep lovers obviously who are quite clearly able to associate the national carmakers brand with certain core American values such as loyalty to one’s nation, integrity and freedom. In whole, Jeep aims at creating awareness about a critical national phenomena that they possible hope will result in consumers making emotionally impulsive purchase decisions to support theirs and their country’s cause. The needs of this targeted category might well be quite diverse considering the alternatives and competition. This could range from performance, design, price, value, mileage and so on. However, by taking an emotional and patriotically significant stand with marketing their offering, Jeep is able to differentiate it by creating a strong lasting connect with their audience that can potentially sway them away from even thinking about the technical specifications of the vehicles, of which no apparent mention is made. 

  

The key benefit claim that Jeep wishes to communicate is expertly presented through this commercial – Buy Jeep and do your bit to support your country and its troops. Jeep has always had a legacy of communicating patriotic and socially intuitive messages through mass media in order to market their products and this stems from their close proximity with the American military operations. Another similar example of this was the 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee Spot. For decades, Jeep’s have been used as military vehicles to transport troops for combat or otherwise and this reinforces its public opinion as America’s very own SUV. Thus, in a way, this ad goes off of the advertiser’s existing campaign in terms of its central theme although it is unique in a very specific sense of patriotism. It is hence not hard to see why the advertiser selected this kind of emotional appeal for the campaign which also involved American troops acting as brand endorsers in a way. 

In terms of generating awareness about its products, Jeep rather subtly displays flashes of its new and existing models while it does do a fantastic job of reminding people about its role in defending the country, thus reinforcing its brand image as a national icon while simultaneously creating interest among potential buyers to further research the offering. In doing so, it will be able to direct TV audiences to its various selling points such as the website or store front where a desire to purchase the product will possibly emerge. Finally, to initiate action from the consumer, it seems less likely that this ad will instantly result in consumers purchasing the product even impulsively as there is a significant build-up that will eventually and probably culminate in a purchase decision. In terms of effectiveness, this ad certainly creates a very impactful and lasting impression on the viewers that is evident from its immediate publicity that has pushed it up the ranking charts as one of the most impactful commercials ever made. Based on this analysis and also from my own judgment of the potential returns from this communication, I believe that this ad is worth the amount as it looks to be set up for successful long-term impact on account of its strong emotional message that will be well engraved in the minds of the target audience for a long time to come, irrespective of whether or not they purchase the offering.