General Motors hopes to turn a fourth-quarter Super Bowl commercial into the equivalent of a moon launch for the automakerโs debut in Formula 1 racing.
A 30-second ad offers a first look at the livery, or vehicle body, that stands at the center of the new auto entry from Cadillac Formula 1. But it also endows the reveal with a sense of history, utilizing President John F. Kennedyโs famous 1962 speech about sending a spacecraft to the moon: โWe choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.โ Viewers will also hear actual dialogue between Mission Control and astronauts from the Apollo mission.
โWe want to plant the flag that we are Americaโs new home team to root for,โ says Ahmed Iqbal, chief marketing officer, Cadillac F1, during a recent interview. The spot is meant to offer โa value proposition you can provide the fan, whether youโre a core F1 fan for the last 70 years, or if youโre a brand-new fan that just watched the โF1โ movie, and youโre still trying to figure out if you like it or not,โ he says. โYou get to go on the journey with us and figure out exactly what it takes to build a team.โ
Cadillac Formula 1 is backed by General Motors and TWG Motorsports and is the first new team to join the sport since 2016. The F1 spot was created with Translation, the independent marketing agency led by entrepreneur Steven Stoute.
Executives believe the spot will stand apart from the pack, even in a fourth quarter that, if it follows recent Super Bowl dynamics, could feature a down-to-the-wire match between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots. Viewers โcan relate to ambition, can relate to taking on a challenge and doing it with no promise of success,โ says ย Mina Mikhael, an executive creative director at Translation., The Super Bowl features โlots of cool celebrity spots, lots of fun spots, lots of very heartfelt spots. You have to stand out from that.โ
The ad shows the new Cadillac Formula 1 vehicle being formed out of parts, all of which can be seen individually over a desert landscape. The spot was indeed filmed in Death Valley National Park and โwe hung car parts on wiresโ and used special effects to show the livery being assembled, says Steve Horn, an executive creative director at Translation. Such a scene was critical, he says, โespecially when the hero of our spot is the machine.โ
GM worked over the weekend to build anticipation for the commercial, with a display in Times Square. The new car was concealed in a ย glass box with frosted windows that allowed passers-by to see the silhouette of mechanics assembling the car throughout the weekend.
But the ad will serve as the true test of interest in Cadillacโs new track. GM will no doubt be looking to see who decides to cheer the new Formula 1 team on as it revs promotional engines.
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