Ad Age: Inside Chrysler's Celine Dion Advertising Disaster

Buy my car

The agency said it was a bad idea. The client insisted. Research showed that Chrysler's proposed use of Celine Dion as a spokesperson appealed to the wrong target. The client said to do the research again, and this time "Make it work." But one year into the three-year, $14 million deal, Chrysler is dropping the diva because of a dealer revolt. Instead of the young target for the entry-level car, she sells cars to their parents and grandparents, some of whom would have presumably otherwise bought the more expensive Chrysler models.

Anyone who's worked at a national agency knows that there is a bias against celebrity campaigns, as it takes the control away from the creatives and often creates a marketing tactics based around the personality and not around the proper strategies. BBDO's stubborn resistance to this effort was admirable, but doomed. Chrysler's "make it work" attitude about the consumer research reveals that the research wasn't so much to inform a decision, but rather to cover the back-ends of executives who made the typical Detroit fallacy: presuming that they know the target market.

Online marketing is both the victim and beneficiary of these types of endorsement deals. Creative campaigns focused on celebrities sometimes give clients the idea that their appearance in a banner will magically "integrate" the media campaign. But that overloads a message that, online, is often designed to elicit direct action. On the other hand, creating terrible returns on investment in traditional media makes the online spending look pretty efficient. In other news, on the other side of Detroit, Ford's Mazda division is engaging Madonna and Britney Spears.