The legendary Bruce Springsteen is a lot of things to a lot of people, but he was never exactly the face of a marketing campaign. His music, yes, but not the man. But if you tune in Super Bowl LV tonight, you’ll see a familiar face – and you’ll find out that Springsteen has teamed up with Jeep.
The commercial is less of an advertisement than a mini-movie, which you would expect from someone like Springsteen. Watching in two minutes, this short clip is called “The Middle” and has only two vehicles: Jeep CJ-5 from 1980 and Jeep CJ-5 Willys from 1965.
That’s because it’s not really an advertisement for a product it is a plea for Americans to “meet in the middle.” Or, in essence, to give up our partisan behaviors and offer a little compassion to each other.
In the two-act commercial, Springsteen talks about a chapel in the center of the country, the Chapel of the US Center in Lebanon, Kansas. In a voiceover, he notes: ““It’s not a secret. The middle has been a hard place to get to lately. Between red and blue. Between servant and citizen. Between our freedom and our fear. Now, fear has never been the best of us. And as for freedom, it is not the property of only a few lucky ones; it belongs to us all ”.
It ends with the slogan “to the United States”, followed by the Jeep website and logo. You can watch the full video below:
So why did the “Boss” agree to continue a commercial for the first time in his career? It’s the message behind it more than anything else and it wasn’t an easy deal for Springsteenager. In fact, he agreed to film the commercial just a few weeks ago, he said Vanity Fair. Here’s more from the story:
Springsteen thought the concept would be very spiritual, he says [chief marketing officer of Stellantis Oliver] Francois. “He saw this as a prayer,” and this interpretation played a role in the musician contributing one of his real pieces to the piece, an idea that Francois says was really considered. . “If this is a prayer, he didn’t want the music to distract from it.” Springsteen chose to contribute instead with a score, Francois demanding the completion of the music on an optimistic note after the artist’s voice finished.
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It is certainly an idea that will reach many people after one of the most chaotic election seasons in America (although I must admit that I find a bit of humor in the fact that this uplifting message must be conveyed through the auspices of religion and capitalism).
And it’s definitely a good thing for Jeep and Stellantis. Countless car manufacturers have come out of the Super Bowl, so we won’t have the announcements we expected during the big game. The Jeep that pushes forward with the idea of Springsteen will give the message a little extra oomph in a vacuum without advertising.