General Motors hopes to turn a fourth-quarter Super Bowl commercial into the equivalent of a moon launch for the automaker’s 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. Kennedy’s famous 1962 speech about sending a spacecraft to the moon: “We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” Viewers will also hear actual dialogue between Mission Control and astronauts from the Apollo mission.
“We want to plant the flag that we are America’s new home team to root for,” says Ahmed Iqbal, chief marketing officer, Cadillac F1, during a recent interview. The spot is meant to offer “a value proposition you can provide the fan, whether you’re a core F1 fan for the last 70 years, or if you’re a brand-new fan that just watched the “F1” movie, and you’re still trying to figure out if you like it or not,” he says. “You get to go on the journey with us and figure out exactly what it takes to build a team.”
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 “can relate to ambition, can relate to taking on a challenge and doing it with no promise of success,” says Mina Mikhael, an executive creative director at Translation., The Super Bowl features “lots of cool celebrity spots, lots of fun spots, lots of very heartfelt spots. You have to stand out from that.”
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 “we hung car parts on wires” 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, “especially when the hero of our spot is the machine.”
GM worked over the weekend to build anticipation for the commercial, with a display in Times Square. The new car was concealed in a 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 Cadillac’s 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.
