On Chrysler's Daimler Gambit

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DETROIT--Chrysler this month kicked off a new advertising effort to push its new 7-year/70,000 mile warranty and its evolving bloodline to its adoptive parents in Germany. The point of both messages, of course, is to convince the car buying public that Chrysler powertrains are no longer made of cardboard, but rather solid German-American steel and Mercedes know-how.

After four years of tip-toeing around its German ownership, the name DaimlerChrysler is now in bold type and headlines, not the same legal type that explains what happens if we drive our leased Chrysler Concorde more than 12,000 miles a year. And we even have references to the autobahn and German rocket science to really put the sauerkraut next to the frankfurt…er…hot dog for people.

Anyone who knows what Chrysler chief Dieter Zetsche is doing at Chrysler, pushing improvement from top to bottom in quality and engineering, and dipping liberally into the Mercedes-Benz parts bin, can appreciate the strategy. But it is not without pitfalls.

Cultural pitfall

The Wall Street Journal’s Joe White penned an advertising column based on faxing radio scripts and print ads to some Jewish leaders. Did the cover sheet, I wonder, actually say…”Don’t you find these ads atrocious for the obvious references to Hitler and the Third Reich?”

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, says the advertisements "serve to whitewash the history and criminality of the Nazi regime."

Huh? The Rabbis objected to DaimlerChrysler using a reference to Albert Einstein, the autobahn and German rocket science in the new Chrysler ads to describe the benefits of German-American collaboration. Hitler built the autobahn, Einstein, a Jew, fled Germany to survive and those German rocket scientists who helped the U.S. get to the moon were Third Reich scientists to whom the U.S. gave refuge because we didn’t want them getting refuge in the Soviet Union.

At the risk of having a Bill Maher Politically Incorrect moment…”give us a break.”

Chrysler spokesman Ken Levy gave the WSJ as good an answer to the issue as a public relations man can. "Our company never intends to offend anyone in its business efforts. But if you want to you can find something negative in anything and blow it out of proportion," Mr. Levy said in a statement. Mr. Levy added in his statement that he is Jewish and lived for 14 years in Germany and experienced no anti-Semitism. "What's wrong with associating with one of America's staunchest allies?" he said.

Levy reviewed the ads before they were shown to the press last week, and saw no reason that they shouldn’t be run. The only pause, I am told, that Zetsche took before approving the ads, was the reference to the autobahn, and the rocket science reference. He wondered if it was correct to play up the German’s role at NASA in reaching the moon--one of America’s proudest moments in history. Zetsche didn’t want to insinuate that it was a German achievement rather than an American one. He also dithered for a few moments about the autobahn ad as well, knowing full well that Hitler is still associated with building the system. But he decided in the end that anyone who has the pleasure of driving the famed German highways in a really hot car isn’t bound to think about the madman who built it seventy years ago.

Merit points

It’s a delicate line to walk. But one that Zetsche is right to try. His only mistake may be in rushing things. The ads, which get across the idea that good things are happening at Chrysler because of its acquisition by Daimler is really talking about the future when it comes to product. The Crossfire is next year; the new large cars with the Mercedes transmissions, the year after. Yes, Mercedes axles and air conditioner compressors are creeping into Chrysler’s in the coming model year.

Chrysler passed Ford in J.D. Power’s Initial Quality Survey this year, but that’s hardly a tall order these days. It lags GM and Honda and Toyota. And it is statistically tied with GM and Ford in Consumer Reports quality surveys. It lags the industry average, though, in Power’s Durability survey, which measures problems over three years of ownership.

It’s not a bad idea to start laying groundwork for the improving quality now, as advertising campaigns, even the best ones, can take more than a year to start sinking into consumer consciousness.

What he can’t say in ads is that if it weren’t for Daimler’s purchase of Chrysler, the company would likely be in liquidation. The Jeep brand would have been sold off to GM or Ford, while Chrysler and Dodge would likely be little more than exhibits at the Walter Chrysler museum.

Changing perceptions

Chrysler ad chief George Murphy said the warranty and the German ad campaign are meant to accelerate the perception of consumers about Chrysler quality--a process that can take many years after just a few years of lousy Chrysler engines and transmissions breaking down on people. The time is now for Chrysler and advertising is one way to help people’s perceptions get into the fast lane.

The references to Germany (wink-wink Mercedes-Benz) may sway a few buyers who aren’t reading the car rags to know what Zetsche is up to; that he comes from a career at Mercedes-Benz or that Chryslers should start to feel a bit more solid and substantial in the coming years as it has more Mercedes-derived content.

It’s not the first time Chrysler has been in the soup over advertising. In the past year, it has pulled or changed at least four ads that offended people or crossed the line into bad taste. The worst of these was an ad for the Concorde in which a mother was hinting to her adolescent daughter that her baby brother was named Concorde because he was conceived in the back seat of the car.

I ran into a Ford public relations staffer last week who told me that he recently had to hear a harangue from someone representing a group of people who have been attacked by sharks. On behalf of his group of shark victims, he wanted Ford to know they objected to the new Expedition ad in which the Expedition is under water and appears to be fending off marauding sharks. “Shark attacks are nothing to joke about or to use to sell cars,” he whimpered.

You’ll never please everyone with every piece of advertising. Someone will always be ticked off that you used the wrong reference. But the vocal few do not represent the many.

Six or seven years ago Loewe & Partners produced an ad for Mercedes using Janis Joplin’s “Mercedes Benz.” It was one of the most memorable Mercedes ads ever produced. It was unexpected and delightful. The agency had to pull it for two weeks after its first airing following a barrage of phone calls that hit the customer service line on a Sunday objecting to invoking the ”Lord” to sell Mercedes-Benz. Later, the agency found out the effort had been orchestrated by one lone right-wing nut (wingnut?). And the ad was put back on the air.

Trying to please everyone with every ad is a recipe for Sominex advertising. And there’s nothing wrong with having sauerkraut on your Sandusky red hot and letting people know what benefits can come from German and American teamwork.