FORD GT –CAN IT BRING FORD BACK TO THE FOREFRONT?
The 2005 Ford GT – Ford’s 500 horsepower supercar – will make its television advertising debut during the Super Bowl XXXVIII pregame show on Feb. 1.
“The One,” a new 60-second commercial, highlights the Ford GT as the “Pace Car for an Entire Company.”
The GT – set to launch this summer – is part of the biggest wave of new products in the history of Ford.
Ford Motor Company will air its first television commercials for the new 2005 Ford GT during the Super Bowl XXXVIII pre-game broadcast, said Steve Lyons, president of Ford Division, at a press conference here today. A 30-second “teaser” ad and a 60-second commercial titled “The One” will position the 500 horsepower supercar as the “pace car for an entire company.”
Why would Ford so prominently advertise a limited-production vehicle that is certain to be a rare sight on the road?
“The Ford GT happens to be part of the most aggressive roll out of new products in Ford history,” said Lyons. “It’s the ‘pace car for an entire company’ because it’s a showcase for Ford’s design, engineering and manufacturing capabilities. That’s reason enough to advertise a $140,000 supercar.”
Two years ago, Ford Motor Company announced that it would deliver 65 new Ford, Mercury and Lincoln products over the next five years.
For Ford Division, the best-selling brand of cars, trucks and SUVs in the U.S. for the past 17 years, that figure includes the all-new 2004 F-150 pickup and Freestar minivan, four new 2005-model cars and the brand’s first crossover.
“The One” Captures Ford GT at Triple Digit Speeds
For the Super Bowl, Ford elected to create a commercial that puts the GT in the only element where drivers can safely and legally explore the upper limits of the car’s awesome abilities: a racetrack.
As a professional driver navigates the hilly and winding, three-mile, 15-turn road racing course at Thunderhill Park in Willow, Calif., a voice asks the viewer three questions – timed to the driver’s gear changes:
“In what gear do you…realize that a car is everything it is supposed to be?”
“In what gear do you know nothing can catch you?”
“In what gear, do you know it is the one?”
“Introducing the Ford GT. This is the one.”
The ad ends with the tagline “The pace car for an entire company.”
“The Ford GT was built by people who love great cars, and Ford Motor Company is full of people who share the same passion but work on our high volume cars, SUVs and trucks,” said Rich Stoddart, Ford Division marketing communications manager. “That’s why it’s the company’s pace car, and that’s the spirit we think we have captured in ‘The One.’”
Filming for the commercial took place entirely on location at Thunderhill in mid-January.
“Our test driver topped speeds of 140 mph and never shifted higher than fourth gear,” Stoddart said. “There was absolutely no need to use editing tricks to make the GT appear faster on film.”
“The One” was created by WPP Group’s J. Walter Thompson USA. It will air once during the Super Bowl pre-game show on CBS shortly before kick off, and again during special events such as the Ford Championship at Doral, which will be broadcast on NBC in March, and the finals of American Idol, which will air in May on the Fox network. A companion print ad to “The One” will appear Sports Illustrated’s annual swimsuit issue.
This year’s Super Bowl and pre game show promise to be the biggest yet:
CBS expects 130 million viewers in the United States and a potential worldwide audience of one billion viewers.
The top 10 most-watched TV programs in history are all Super Bowls.
Men make up more than 50 percent of Super Bowl viewers.
Pre game entertainment headliners include Aerosmith, "Ford Truck Man" Toby Keith and Willie Nelson.
Toby Keith was second only to Bruce Springsteen in concert ticket sales (The F-150- Transformer truck was at all of Keith’s tour stops).
The theme of the pre-game entertainment is “Spirit of Texas,” and includes a tribute to the Columbia astronauts (the shuttle was lost on Feb. 1 last year).
Agency billings, media costs and other financial information associated with “The One” is not being disclosed.
History of the Ford GT
The design inspirations for the Ford GT were the Ford GT40s of the 1960s, which were developed on the orders of Henry Ford II to challenge Ferrari for road-racing supremacy. The challenge turned into a rout in 1966, when Ford GT40s crossed the finish line 1-2-3 at the Twenty-Four Hours of LeMans – wins that helped Ford earn the World Manufacturer’s Championship for sports cars.
A concept version of the Ford GT was unveiled at the 2002 North American International Auto Show in Detroit. That spring, Ford approved the car for production, and just over a year later, the first production-level cars were unveiled at Ford’s Centennial celebration in June 2003.
The car’s desirability was underscored later that summer at the Christie's Auction of Exceptional Motor Cars at Pebble Beach (Calif.), where one of the first production Ford GTs sold for $500,000 (plus auction fees), with the net proceeds going to charities.