Iacocca raps with Snoop Dogg
08-05-2005, 05:59 AM
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Iacocca raps with Snoop Dogg
Iacocca raps with Snoop Dogg
Chrysler pitchman proves he's still master of the deal
By Bill Vlasic / The Detroit News
Charles V. Tines / The Detroit News
WOODLAND HILLS, Calif. -- The grounds of the country club had been turned into a Hollywood set by 9 a.m., with camera crews and lighting technicians and makeup artists hustling to get ready for the day's shoot.
Waiting nearby, behind the tinted glass of side-by-side luxury motor homes, were the two stars of the Chrysler Group's latest television commercial, "Golf Buddies."
And when the cameras started rolling, the bright lights hit auto legend Lee Iacocca and platinum-selling rapper Snoop Dogg together in what has to be the most surreal pairing of spokesmen in automotive history.
The 30-second spot, which debuts on network TV tonight, is the fourth and final commercial in Chrysler's $75 million ad campaign featuring Iacocca, the company's long-retired chairman and the most fabled car salesman of them all.
At age 80, Iacocca is proving once again that the art of the deal never gets old -- even when he's sharing the stage with the lanky, diamond-studded, "gansta"-rapping Snoop Dogg.
"I don't know what the hell Snoop is saying," Iacocca said with a smile. "But he called me 'nephew,' so I guess that means I'm in."
The Detroit News went behind the scenes July 29 for an exclusive look at the filming of the 65th commercial of Iacocca's career.
Despite being retired from Chrysler for a dozen years, Iacocca still commands the spotlight like no other celebrity CEO ever has.
"The goal of using Lee was to cut through the clutter," said Jason Vines, Chrysler's head of communications. "And our research shows that we cut through the clutter big-time."
So far, the Iacocca ads have hit the mark. Chrysler recently announced it would extend its employee discounts on vehicles for all consumers after sales jumped 27 percent in July.
Whether he's spoofing "Seinfeld" with actor Jason Alexander or trading quips with Snoop Dogg, Iacocca approaches today's consumers with the same straight-talking style he patented in the 1980s.
"You don't have to get too fancy or too humorous," he said. "The message should be clear: I'd like you to buy our car. And stay with it."
And while he was just a grade-schooler named Calvin Broadus when Iacocca saved Chrysler from bankruptcy 25 years ago, Snoop Dogg knew exactly who he was hanging with on the set.
"My brother said this may be the biggest thing I've ever done," he said, "sitting side by side with the biggest boss of them all ... Mr. ... Lee ... I-a-cocca!"
The big boss dog
When Iacocca filmed his first TV ads for Chrysler in 1979, the No. 3 U.S. automaker was flat on its back and asking the federal government to guarantee $1.5 billion in loans to keep it afloat.
His advisers urged him to plead Chrysler's case directly to the American people.
"If you get the right mixture of styling and quality, over time you hit home runs," Iacocca says.
"Besides credibility, there's another reason to feature the boss in the ad," Iacocca wrote in his best-selling autobiography. "If the ad fails, it's his ass on the line."
But instead of failing, Iacocca's blunt, plain-spoken style was a huge hit with consumers. His signature line -- "If you can find a better car, buy it" -- became an American catch-phrase. And when Chrysler paid back its loans early with interest, Iacocca was nothing short of a folk hero.
Before there was Donald Trump and Martha Stewart, before Ross Perot and Jack Welch, there was Iacocca, the cigar-chomping son of Italian immigrants who personified a proud American industry fighting off a rising tide of Japanese imports.
His fame sparked talk of a run for the U.S. presidency, but Iacocca never took politics too seriously. His life was cars -- conceiving them, building them and, above all, selling them.
"They say styling sells and quality keeps them sold," he said during an interview at his Los Angeles home. "That never changes. If you get the right mixture of styling and quality, over time you hit home runs."
He hit a huge one while at Ford Motor Co. in the mid-1960s when he shepherded the development of the Mustang, and knocked another one out of the park with the introduction of the Chrysler minivan in the 1980s.
When he retired from Chrysler in 1993, Iacocca tried his hand as an entrepreneur before joining billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian in an ill-fated takeover try for his old company.
After that disappointment, he disappeared from the limelight, devoting his time to his brood of grandchildren and raising money for the project closest to his heart -- finding a cure for diabetes.
Iacocca's first wife, Mary, died of diabetes in 1983, and he's been consumed with curing the disease ever since.
Last year, he set a goal of raising $11.5 million to fund clinical trials on promising new drug treatments under study at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Just when he needed a boost in his fund-raising efforts, Chrysler came calling again.
Chrysler, which was bought by the German automaker Daimler-Benz AG in 1998, was looking for a splashy media campaign to support its entry into the employee-pricing sales blitz started by rival General Motors Corp.
Resurrecting Iacocca as a spokesman had its risks. Was he too old, too identified with the Chrysler of the past, too Frank Sinatra-era to resonate in a hip-hop world?
"Yeah it was risky," said Hugh Broder of Chrysler's ad agency BBDO Detroit. "But this is Lee Iacocca we're talking about."
Iacocca negotiated a fee of $1 million, plus $1 for every Chrysler sold, all to be donated to his diabetes campaign.
When he shot the first of the commercials with actor Jason Alexander in New York, he felt the old magic coming back.
"Hell, the baby boomers still identify with me," he said. "And the nice thing about the baby boomers is, they still buy one out of every two cars."
Charles V. Tines / The Detroit News
With temperatures topping 100 degrees, the shoot was broken up into segments so the stars could retreat to shaded tents or air-conditioned motor homes labeled "Mr. Iacocca" and "Mr. Dogg."
The odd couple
It was a unique moment even for Hollywood, the first meeting ever between Detroit's one-time Chairman of the Board and the self-proclaimed "Doggfather" of rap music.
An odder couple could hardly be imagined than Iacocca, the paragon of corporate power, and 33-year-old Snoop Dogg, the up-from-the-streets rap star with a criminal rap sheet and a language all his own.
"It's a big company and a big-time rapper doing big business together," said Snoop. "We are bringing the generations together and it's a beautiful thing."
Last year, Snoop made headlines when he personally called Chrysler chief Dieter Zetsche to get one of the first available models of the sculpted new Chrysler 300C sedan.
"Snoop has already been identified with some of our recent product," Vines said. "And to pair him with Lee is just a 'holy cow' kind of thing."
The commercial shoot at the Woodland Hills Country Club north of Los Angeles was scheduled to be an all-day affair. More than 100 people and four semi-trailers of equipment were involved.
The playful tone of the script was clear from the opening scene, with Iacocca in a pink golf shirt and tan slacks apparently waiting for someone in front of the club.
Suddenly, a Dodge Ram pickup pulled up. "Nice ride," said Iacocca.
Then Snoop popped out of the driver's seat clad in garish plaid pants and an argyle sweater vest.
"Thank you, Mocha-cocha," he drawled.
The repartee as they headed out to the golf course was classic dead-pan dialogue.
When Snoop exclaimed that he's "got the hook-up, nephew," on a good deal for a Chrysler car, Iacocca feigned puzzlement.
"I'm not sure what you just said, but now anybody gets a great deal," said Iacocca.
Snoop, in his own words, agreed.
"Fo-shizzle," he said, "Ica-zizzle."
They traded lines like it was the most natural thing in the world that a 6-feet-4-inch, goateed rapper would be teeing it up with a grey-haired corporate big-shot.
Their off-camera moments were priceless. In one scene, Snoop drives a pimped-up golf cart with spinner wheels and white leather seats, with Iacocca sitting next to him. When Snoop gunned the cart down a steep hill, Iacocca held on tight.
"How are the brakes on this thing, Snoop?" he said.
"I got you baby," Snoop replied. "But that would be a funny commercial if I tipped over with the boss in here."
"Yeah," Iacocca huffed. "That's funny alright."
With temperatures topping 100 degrees, the shoot was broken into segments so the stars could retreat to shaded tents or air-conditioned motor homes labeled "Mr. Iacocca" and "Mr. Dogg."
During his breaks, Iacocca kicked back and told stories about old pals like Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr. and President Ronald Reagan.
He recalled telling Reagan how he routinely shot 50 to 60 takes of a scene for one of his commercials in the 1980s.
"He said, 'Are you kidding me?' " Iacocca said. "He said that when he and Clark were making movies -- Clark Gable was his best friend, you know -- they used to be known as one-take Reagan and one-take Gable."
Then he paused, and delivered a practiced punch line. "Well," he said, "I guess it worked for Gable."
At one point, after waiting more than hour to resume shooting, Iacocca flashed a bit of his once legendary temper.
When a member of the production crew finally said, "We're ready for you, Mr. Iacocca," he shot him a look. "Well I got news for you," he snapped. "I'm not ready anymore."
But despite the heat and the waiting and the takes and retakes, Iacocca was in fine form.
The director, Dave Meyers of Radical Media Inc., gave him the supreme show-biz compliment after one scene.
"You just killed that line, Mr. Iacocca," Meyers said. "Just killed it."
And over the course of the 12-hour day, Iacocca bonded with his unlikely co-star.
When Iacocca began talking about his efforts to cure diabetes, Snoop leaned over and quietly told him that his mother and brother both suffer from the disease. "And I don't know if one of my kids might get it too," he said.
Iacocca promised that more help is on the way.
"I smell a breakthrough here," he said. "The car business was fun when we had a big breakthrough. Well, I think we're going to have one with diabetes."
The shoot dragged on until the biggest scene was ready to go. In it, Snoop sets up to hit a golf shot, but pauses first to deliver his own variation on Iacocca's "Find a better car, buy it" line.
"If the ride is more fly," Snoop said. "Then you must buy."
Then the camera cuts to Iacocca with a bemused look on his face. "That's what I hear," he said.
Coming full circle
By 6 p.m., the crew was hot and tired and ready to call it a day. But Iacocca had to do one last scene.
He shuffled his 80-year-old body to a spot in front of the country club. He had to nail the line "Nice ride," just as the Ram pickup pulled up. The atmosphere got tense on the set as the cameraman kept missing the shot.
But Iacocca never wavered. He was in the home stretch. Over and over, he said the line, "Nice ride ... nice ride ... nice ride ... nice ride."
Finally, after dozens of takes, the shot was perfect. Iacocca's 65th -- and likely last -- commercial was in the can.
"It took me 13 years to do the first 61," he said. ""Now I've done four quickies back-to-back-to-back-back. Pretty good huh?"
His daughter, Lia Assad, said the return to the limelight was both a powerful and poignant experience for her father.
"It's like he's come full circle," she said. "He wants to cure diabetes in his lifetime and he wants to help Chrysler, too. It's for the best."
When it was over, Iacocca moved slowly through the crowd, shaking hands with the director and the assistant directors, the crew members and the caterers, the lighting guys and the wardrobe gals. And as he walked away toward the parking lot, he glanced over his shoulder one last time.
"Did I miss anybody?" he asked. "You know, I don't want to leave without saying goodbye."
Is that really Lee's granddaughter? Nope
Chrysler
It's perhaps the most talked about of Chrysler's new ads and features what many viewers assume is Lee Iacocca's grandchild.
But his young co-star is actually a budding actress, Naelee Rae.
Iacocca, a veteran of TV advertising, has nothing but praise. "That's a professional, a terrific little kid who had done 36 commercials by the way," he said. "And she's 9 years old!"
The world according to Iacocca
On GM: "With styling, I don't know what GM is doing. The truth is Harley Earl would have wondered what the hell happened over there with styling."
On the industry's rising health care costs: "I'd sit down with the union and say I can't wait until 2007. I may be bankrupt by then. You guys better get the idea that it's crisis time."
On the proliferation of new models: "We had a saying at Ford: shuck the losers. Set a standard for them and if they don't meet it, get rid of the damn thing."
You can reach Bill Vlasic at (313) 222-2152 or bvlasic@detnews.com.
http://www.detnews.com/2005/autosins...A01-270715.htm
Chrysler pitchman proves he's still master of the deal
By Bill Vlasic / The Detroit News
Charles V. Tines / The Detroit News
WOODLAND HILLS, Calif. -- The grounds of the country club had been turned into a Hollywood set by 9 a.m., with camera crews and lighting technicians and makeup artists hustling to get ready for the day's shoot.
Waiting nearby, behind the tinted glass of side-by-side luxury motor homes, were the two stars of the Chrysler Group's latest television commercial, "Golf Buddies."
And when the cameras started rolling, the bright lights hit auto legend Lee Iacocca and platinum-selling rapper Snoop Dogg together in what has to be the most surreal pairing of spokesmen in automotive history.
The 30-second spot, which debuts on network TV tonight, is the fourth and final commercial in Chrysler's $75 million ad campaign featuring Iacocca, the company's long-retired chairman and the most fabled car salesman of them all.
At age 80, Iacocca is proving once again that the art of the deal never gets old -- even when he's sharing the stage with the lanky, diamond-studded, "gansta"-rapping Snoop Dogg.
"I don't know what the hell Snoop is saying," Iacocca said with a smile. "But he called me 'nephew,' so I guess that means I'm in."
The Detroit News went behind the scenes July 29 for an exclusive look at the filming of the 65th commercial of Iacocca's career.
Despite being retired from Chrysler for a dozen years, Iacocca still commands the spotlight like no other celebrity CEO ever has.
"The goal of using Lee was to cut through the clutter," said Jason Vines, Chrysler's head of communications. "And our research shows that we cut through the clutter big-time."
So far, the Iacocca ads have hit the mark. Chrysler recently announced it would extend its employee discounts on vehicles for all consumers after sales jumped 27 percent in July.
Whether he's spoofing "Seinfeld" with actor Jason Alexander or trading quips with Snoop Dogg, Iacocca approaches today's consumers with the same straight-talking style he patented in the 1980s.
"You don't have to get too fancy or too humorous," he said. "The message should be clear: I'd like you to buy our car. And stay with it."
And while he was just a grade-schooler named Calvin Broadus when Iacocca saved Chrysler from bankruptcy 25 years ago, Snoop Dogg knew exactly who he was hanging with on the set.
"My brother said this may be the biggest thing I've ever done," he said, "sitting side by side with the biggest boss of them all ... Mr. ... Lee ... I-a-cocca!"
The big boss dog
When Iacocca filmed his first TV ads for Chrysler in 1979, the No. 3 U.S. automaker was flat on its back and asking the federal government to guarantee $1.5 billion in loans to keep it afloat.
His advisers urged him to plead Chrysler's case directly to the American people.
"If you get the right mixture of styling and quality, over time you hit home runs," Iacocca says.
"Besides credibility, there's another reason to feature the boss in the ad," Iacocca wrote in his best-selling autobiography. "If the ad fails, it's his ass on the line."
But instead of failing, Iacocca's blunt, plain-spoken style was a huge hit with consumers. His signature line -- "If you can find a better car, buy it" -- became an American catch-phrase. And when Chrysler paid back its loans early with interest, Iacocca was nothing short of a folk hero.
Before there was Donald Trump and Martha Stewart, before Ross Perot and Jack Welch, there was Iacocca, the cigar-chomping son of Italian immigrants who personified a proud American industry fighting off a rising tide of Japanese imports.
His fame sparked talk of a run for the U.S. presidency, but Iacocca never took politics too seriously. His life was cars -- conceiving them, building them and, above all, selling them.
"They say styling sells and quality keeps them sold," he said during an interview at his Los Angeles home. "That never changes. If you get the right mixture of styling and quality, over time you hit home runs."
He hit a huge one while at Ford Motor Co. in the mid-1960s when he shepherded the development of the Mustang, and knocked another one out of the park with the introduction of the Chrysler minivan in the 1980s.
When he retired from Chrysler in 1993, Iacocca tried his hand as an entrepreneur before joining billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian in an ill-fated takeover try for his old company.
After that disappointment, he disappeared from the limelight, devoting his time to his brood of grandchildren and raising money for the project closest to his heart -- finding a cure for diabetes.
Iacocca's first wife, Mary, died of diabetes in 1983, and he's been consumed with curing the disease ever since.
Last year, he set a goal of raising $11.5 million to fund clinical trials on promising new drug treatments under study at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Just when he needed a boost in his fund-raising efforts, Chrysler came calling again.
Chrysler, which was bought by the German automaker Daimler-Benz AG in 1998, was looking for a splashy media campaign to support its entry into the employee-pricing sales blitz started by rival General Motors Corp.
Resurrecting Iacocca as a spokesman had its risks. Was he too old, too identified with the Chrysler of the past, too Frank Sinatra-era to resonate in a hip-hop world?
"Yeah it was risky," said Hugh Broder of Chrysler's ad agency BBDO Detroit. "But this is Lee Iacocca we're talking about."
Iacocca negotiated a fee of $1 million, plus $1 for every Chrysler sold, all to be donated to his diabetes campaign.
When he shot the first of the commercials with actor Jason Alexander in New York, he felt the old magic coming back.
"Hell, the baby boomers still identify with me," he said. "And the nice thing about the baby boomers is, they still buy one out of every two cars."
Charles V. Tines / The Detroit News
With temperatures topping 100 degrees, the shoot was broken up into segments so the stars could retreat to shaded tents or air-conditioned motor homes labeled "Mr. Iacocca" and "Mr. Dogg."
The odd couple
It was a unique moment even for Hollywood, the first meeting ever between Detroit's one-time Chairman of the Board and the self-proclaimed "Doggfather" of rap music.
An odder couple could hardly be imagined than Iacocca, the paragon of corporate power, and 33-year-old Snoop Dogg, the up-from-the-streets rap star with a criminal rap sheet and a language all his own.
"It's a big company and a big-time rapper doing big business together," said Snoop. "We are bringing the generations together and it's a beautiful thing."
Last year, Snoop made headlines when he personally called Chrysler chief Dieter Zetsche to get one of the first available models of the sculpted new Chrysler 300C sedan.
"Snoop has already been identified with some of our recent product," Vines said. "And to pair him with Lee is just a 'holy cow' kind of thing."
The commercial shoot at the Woodland Hills Country Club north of Los Angeles was scheduled to be an all-day affair. More than 100 people and four semi-trailers of equipment were involved.
The playful tone of the script was clear from the opening scene, with Iacocca in a pink golf shirt and tan slacks apparently waiting for someone in front of the club.
Suddenly, a Dodge Ram pickup pulled up. "Nice ride," said Iacocca.
Then Snoop popped out of the driver's seat clad in garish plaid pants and an argyle sweater vest.
"Thank you, Mocha-cocha," he drawled.
The repartee as they headed out to the golf course was classic dead-pan dialogue.
When Snoop exclaimed that he's "got the hook-up, nephew," on a good deal for a Chrysler car, Iacocca feigned puzzlement.
"I'm not sure what you just said, but now anybody gets a great deal," said Iacocca.
Snoop, in his own words, agreed.
"Fo-shizzle," he said, "Ica-zizzle."
They traded lines like it was the most natural thing in the world that a 6-feet-4-inch, goateed rapper would be teeing it up with a grey-haired corporate big-shot.
Their off-camera moments were priceless. In one scene, Snoop drives a pimped-up golf cart with spinner wheels and white leather seats, with Iacocca sitting next to him. When Snoop gunned the cart down a steep hill, Iacocca held on tight.
"How are the brakes on this thing, Snoop?" he said.
"I got you baby," Snoop replied. "But that would be a funny commercial if I tipped over with the boss in here."
"Yeah," Iacocca huffed. "That's funny alright."
With temperatures topping 100 degrees, the shoot was broken into segments so the stars could retreat to shaded tents or air-conditioned motor homes labeled "Mr. Iacocca" and "Mr. Dogg."
During his breaks, Iacocca kicked back and told stories about old pals like Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr. and President Ronald Reagan.
He recalled telling Reagan how he routinely shot 50 to 60 takes of a scene for one of his commercials in the 1980s.
"He said, 'Are you kidding me?' " Iacocca said. "He said that when he and Clark were making movies -- Clark Gable was his best friend, you know -- they used to be known as one-take Reagan and one-take Gable."
Then he paused, and delivered a practiced punch line. "Well," he said, "I guess it worked for Gable."
At one point, after waiting more than hour to resume shooting, Iacocca flashed a bit of his once legendary temper.
When a member of the production crew finally said, "We're ready for you, Mr. Iacocca," he shot him a look. "Well I got news for you," he snapped. "I'm not ready anymore."
But despite the heat and the waiting and the takes and retakes, Iacocca was in fine form.
The director, Dave Meyers of Radical Media Inc., gave him the supreme show-biz compliment after one scene.
"You just killed that line, Mr. Iacocca," Meyers said. "Just killed it."
And over the course of the 12-hour day, Iacocca bonded with his unlikely co-star.
When Iacocca began talking about his efforts to cure diabetes, Snoop leaned over and quietly told him that his mother and brother both suffer from the disease. "And I don't know if one of my kids might get it too," he said.
Iacocca promised that more help is on the way.
"I smell a breakthrough here," he said. "The car business was fun when we had a big breakthrough. Well, I think we're going to have one with diabetes."
The shoot dragged on until the biggest scene was ready to go. In it, Snoop sets up to hit a golf shot, but pauses first to deliver his own variation on Iacocca's "Find a better car, buy it" line.
"If the ride is more fly," Snoop said. "Then you must buy."
Then the camera cuts to Iacocca with a bemused look on his face. "That's what I hear," he said.
Coming full circle
By 6 p.m., the crew was hot and tired and ready to call it a day. But Iacocca had to do one last scene.
He shuffled his 80-year-old body to a spot in front of the country club. He had to nail the line "Nice ride," just as the Ram pickup pulled up. The atmosphere got tense on the set as the cameraman kept missing the shot.
But Iacocca never wavered. He was in the home stretch. Over and over, he said the line, "Nice ride ... nice ride ... nice ride ... nice ride."
Finally, after dozens of takes, the shot was perfect. Iacocca's 65th -- and likely last -- commercial was in the can.
"It took me 13 years to do the first 61," he said. ""Now I've done four quickies back-to-back-to-back-back. Pretty good huh?"
His daughter, Lia Assad, said the return to the limelight was both a powerful and poignant experience for her father.
"It's like he's come full circle," she said. "He wants to cure diabetes in his lifetime and he wants to help Chrysler, too. It's for the best."
When it was over, Iacocca moved slowly through the crowd, shaking hands with the director and the assistant directors, the crew members and the caterers, the lighting guys and the wardrobe gals. And as he walked away toward the parking lot, he glanced over his shoulder one last time.
"Did I miss anybody?" he asked. "You know, I don't want to leave without saying goodbye."
Is that really Lee's granddaughter? Nope
Chrysler
It's perhaps the most talked about of Chrysler's new ads and features what many viewers assume is Lee Iacocca's grandchild.
But his young co-star is actually a budding actress, Naelee Rae.
Iacocca, a veteran of TV advertising, has nothing but praise. "That's a professional, a terrific little kid who had done 36 commercials by the way," he said. "And she's 9 years old!"
The world according to Iacocca
On GM: "With styling, I don't know what GM is doing. The truth is Harley Earl would have wondered what the hell happened over there with styling."
On the industry's rising health care costs: "I'd sit down with the union and say I can't wait until 2007. I may be bankrupt by then. You guys better get the idea that it's crisis time."
On the proliferation of new models: "We had a saying at Ford: shuck the losers. Set a standard for them and if they don't meet it, get rid of the damn thing."
You can reach Bill Vlasic at (313) 222-2152 or bvlasic@detnews.com.
http://www.detnews.com/2005/autosins...A01-270715.htm
08-05-2005, 08:28 AM
#2
Race Director
"If the ride is more fly," Snoop said. "Then you must buy."
I wonder how many folks today will remember this line 20 years from now.A little too much Johnnie Cochran ring to it.
08-05-2005, 11:08 AM
#3
Suzuka Master
https://acurazine.com/forums/ramblings-12/iacocca-snoop-dogg-latest-last-new-chrysler-adds-314869/
You were a couple minutes late.
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