Opinion BY Armin

Chrysler’s Sucker Punch

Trying to rebound from bankruptcy and the beating it has taken from non-American car brands, Chrysler, now owned in part by Fiat, is attempting to bring back some attitude to the industry as well as some much needed love to the city of Detroit. During this year’s Superbowl XLV, Chrysler ran a two-minute commercial featuring lovely shots of the city while local boy wonder, Eminem, drove a Chrysler 200 to the riff of his hit “Lose Yourself” culminating in him pointing at your face and stating “This is the Motor City; this is what we do.” The ad served to introduce the tagline, “Imported from Detroit,” which now has its own logo. Both the commercial and logo were created by Wieden + Kennedy. Chrysler has just launched a collection of “Imported from Detroit” merchandise, and part of the profits go to four different charities: Boys and Girls Club of Southeastern Michigan, Habitat for Humanity Detroit, Marshall Mathers Foundation, and Think Detroit PAL.

Chrylser’s Superbowl XLV commercial introducing “Imported from Detroit” featuring Eminem.

Chrysler logo + Robert Graham’s sculpture of boxer Joe Louis’ arm and fist in Detroit.

Sample of logo in apparel (all the products are basically the same).

The logo is based on Chrysler’s mess of a logo and a rendering of the fist of Joe Louis, from one of Detroit’s landmarks, a 24-foot sculpture of the boxer’s armed commissioned by Time, Inc. from Robert Graham. As opposed to the amazing production quality and attention to detail of the Superbowl ad, this logo is quite bad. There is no real sense of integration between the logo and the fist and the typography, just three completely different stylistic elements thrown together and splashed on overpriced merchandise. It sucks for the charities involved because the logo is so unappealing and definitely not worth $55 for a hoodie. (Maybe they’ve sold thousands of these and I can put my foot in my mouth). I guess they were trying to go for a menacing, Detroit-ish look, but it just comes across as amateur. I wish the production values (and a bit of the budget) had been spent more on the aesthetics of this venture, which has an interesting concept, but once living outside the commercial it falters in execution.

Thanks to Roy Levitt for first tip.

Many thanks to our ADV @ UnderConsideration Partners