I read AdJab daily because there are excellent, short, informative posts about the world of advertising. One of my favorite categories is their ‘Ads We Hate‘. Well, one of the ads I hate the most is the Ford commercial with recent American Idol winner Taylor Hicks (note: I do not watch the show). You can view the commercial here on YouTube. After doing some research I found Ford was one of the official sponsors of American Idol, and I would imagine this commercial opportunity was probably in their deal.

Ford has been in need of some critical rebranding for years but simply putting your name on a pop culture phenomenon is not going to cut it. Having an American Idol winner singing about Ford trucks and financing is not going to solve your problems. I haven’t done extensive market research on the matter but I do not think American Idol viewers are your target market to sell Ford trucks to. Just a guess…

Ford knows it needs a new image and knows their brand needs refreshed. But they should also realize brand revitalization needs to come from inside the organization. Look at some recent successful refreshed brands — Intel and At&t. These companies changed from inside to out to change their brand. This happened before they told everybody they had changed — unlike what Ford has done.

This would have been a good deal for Ford if they had a line of vehicles that were more appropriate for the American Idol demographic. Had they followed Toyota’s lead (and what carmaker should not) and created a new brand (Scion) to target a new demographic (16-24) they would be golden with their American Idol sponsorship. I’m not sure I know of any 17 year old girl asking her parents to buy her a Ford F-150.

The moral of the story is that if you are going to revitalize your brand, it needs to come from the inside. You can’t paint a new picture on the outside and expect people to believe it. You have to believe it first.

technorati tags:branding, business, marketing, commercial, ford, american idol