F-150 / Bronco / Navigator / Ford vs Ferrari

#1 All-New F-150 virtual launch at Willow Run Assembly Plant.  Under half a million views of their 40 minute episodic thus far.  Mark LaNeve, VP, US Marketing, Sales & Service at Ford, ticked off the ‘must haves’ in the perpetual truck war amongst the Detroit three: all aluminum alloy body, best-in-class towing, payload, torque, 12” touch screen, over-the-air-software updates, some eyebrow raising driver telematics, front seats that recline like a Delta One sleep pod, fold flat center console for working on a laptop with lunch etc.  He also teased the electric F-150 that will be built at Ford’s Rouge assembly plant. Electrification may well define the future of transportation for cars and trucks, and here comes Tesla’s Cybertruck, the Nikola Badger, GMC Hummer EV SUT, Rivian R1T and others.  While the Mustang E SUV launched late last year, there are Teslas in every major city, a sprinkling of Volts, Nissan Leafs and a few Fiat 500e’s out there.  Ford needs some street presence to back its electric bona fides.  Back in the gasoline engine world, RAM looks to keep the pressure on Ford with the launch of the TRX later this summer.

#2 The Bronco is coming tonight via a Disney trifecta: ESPN, ABC and National Geographic will debut three separate launch films at 8pm.  This ‘owned-channel’ media strategy looks like a great play consider the dearth of unique programming on traditional media and a major contraction in ad spending.  The Bronco will join the Wrangler in the ‘overland’ segment that the Jeep Brand has owned for decades.  For a $100, you can get on a dealer’s list to own one of the first vehicles off the line in 2021.  Ford will get insights into market demand that will hopefully claw its way upwards in 2021.  Bryan Cranston, the Jeep Brand VO circa 2014, reprises his Arcadian wanderlust on the Bronco teaser.  Ford’s enjoying a cascade of media channels amplifying the Bronco push because the return of a classic nameplate is easy to rally around in these bleak times, live sports, (except golf and auto racing), are almost non-existent and there are no Hollywood Blockbusters.  The Bronco Reveal is turning into a real barn burner.  The Jeep Brand just dropped an image of a Wrangler with a 392 6.4 liter V-8 in an attempt to check the rush.  Not sure what I’d would do with all that horsepower going up or down Suicide Hill in Moab, but who doesn’t like more horsepower?

#3 The Lincoln Navigator isn’t new, but the All-New 2021 Escalade is. Cadillac debuted the Escalade on February 6 before we all went into the new ‘not normal.’ GM hopes to maintain their sales dominance with the All-New Escalade. Back in Q4, the Navigator was making solid gains against the category leading Escalade.  The reveal film, “Anthem, Make Your Way,” lays buttery product shots over DJ Shadow’s Instrumental “Nobody Speak” and spices it up with Spike Lee’s signature iconoclasm heavy on the film puns – classic GM.  So much has changed since February that “Anthem” feels nostalgic.  Cadillac and Lincoln are battling it out in the sub-one hundred thousand dollar, 3-row luxury SUV market ... a segment that’s going to get tested in the Covid ravaged NAFTA region as wealthy customers retrench, unemployment swells and salaried incomes contract. Despite the fanfare and improvements to the Escalade, the older Navigator platform compares favorably to the newest luxury SUV from Cadillac.

#4 Ford Vs Ferrari is a movie that burnishes an American Icon.  It celebrates a kind of American optimism that Big Tech, Tesla & Space-X now exude.  It’s nostalgia without guilt.  There’s no Harley Earl film depicting his apotheosis as GM’s first Head of Design, no Lee Iacocca movie where he saves Chrysler building the K-Car, nor is there a film about Sergio Marcionne’s parlay with the US Government to take the Chrysler Group out of bankruptcy. There are undoubtedly good stories there, but they haven’t been made into films yet (not to my knowledge). Carlos Ghosn's escape from Japan gets my vote for the most likely theatrical endeavor to hit our screens next. Ford Vs. Ferrari hopes to keep company with the '71 Steve McQueen classic, LeMans.

One shot defines the film for me. It’s a fictive add from Director, James Mangold - Enzo Ferrari wasn’t actually at the race.  After the finish, Ken Miles is on the paddock in a milieu of drivers, crew and press reconciling his uncharacteristic decision to fall back and finish with the other Ford car ... because it would be good for Ford. It was a decision that, due to a scoring technicality, cost him the overall victory.  Enzo Ferrari sees Ken and tips his hat. That gesture from the vanquished paragon of motor racing meant as much to Ken Miles as winning the race. It's a myth that propels the legend. The contest isn’t just against other drivers and team owners, it’s a battle within ourselves to see what we’re capable of, what we’ll endure and where our indomitability ends.   Can’t get much more upper funnel than that.