Stellantis sits out the Super Bowl—why the Jeep owner won’t be back

Jeep and Ram owner Stellantis—which has been a regular Super Bowl advertiser—will sit out this year’s game, citing economic conditions in the automotive market. “With a continued focus on preserving business fundamentals to mitigate the impact of a challenging U.S. automotive market, we are evaluating our business needs and will take the appropriate decisions to protect our North America operations and the company. In light of this assessment, we will not be participating in the Big Game this year,” the automaker said in a statement. Stellantis appeared in last year’s game with ads for Jeep and Ram, both from Highdive, and outside of 2019 and 2022, it has appeared in every Super Bowl since 2009. Most of those ads came under global Chief Marketing Officer Olivier Francois and often featured big-budget productions starring the likes of Bill Murray, Bruce Springsteen and Clint Eastwood. Super Bowl commercials Tracking the latest brand and agency plans Enter here The move to stay on the sidelines this year follows other cutbacks at the automaker, as it battles a sales slump. In October the company announced it would pull out of CES, which begins next week. At the time of the announcement, it cited cost savings needed as a result of the then-active United Autoworkers strike. Earlier this week, Stellantis said it would not participate in next month’s Chicago Auto Show, saying in a statement reported by Automotive News that “to be as efficient as possible in our media spend, we are evaluating participation in auto shows on a case-by-case basis, while prioritizing opportunities for consumers to experience our vehicles firsthand.” Stellantis U.S. sales dipped 1.1% in the fourth quarter, according to Automotive News. In a positive sign, Jeep made sales gains, ending a streak of nine consecutive quarterly declines. General Motors, which also dealt with the fallout from the six-week UAW strike, late last year confirmed it would also not be back in the 2024 Super Bowl, breaking a four-year streak. To date, BMW is the only automaker to have publicly confirmed a Super Bowl buy for the Feb. 11 game on CBS. Last year’s game drew only four auto ads—GM, Jeep, Ram and Kia—a significant downturn from the 2022 game, when six automakers ran a total of eight ads. Most of those brands, including Kia, General Motors, Nissan and Polestar, used the pricey investment to plug their electric vehicle ambitions. Last year, both Stellantis ads featured electric vehicles, including a Ram ad called “Premature Electrification” that used sexual innuendos to plug the Ram 1500 REV pickup truck. But the EV market of late has shown signs of not living up to the hype. A recent report from S&P Global Mobility revealed that about two-thirds of S&P’s respondents said they were open to purchasing an EV—a 19-percentage point drop from 2021. An ad industry executive familiar with the automotive business suggested that the so-called Detroit 3—which refers to GM, Stellantis and Ford—are “kind of retrenching a bit.” This person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, added that “there is a lot of capital that has to be poured into electrification,” but also noted that skipping the Super Bowl could also be related to the “optics” of not wanting to run expensive ads while still dealing with strike fallout. (Ford has very rarely run Super Bowl ads in recent years.) With the Detroit brands sidelined, it could open the door for other auto brands to make a splash in the game. Toyota, which recently spent big money on a new NFL sponsorship, has yet to confirm its Big Game plans. The automaker sat out last year’s game, ending a five-year streak. Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs

Stellantis sits out the Super Bowl—why the Jeep owner won’t be back

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