As FCA learned today, no matter the record-breaking torque, it’s just hard to beat roaring engines, smoking tires and Charlie Daniels.
The automaker released its Super Bowl auto ads ahead of the big game this Sunday between the New England Patriots and the Los Angeles Rams.
Of the three ads—one for Ram Heavy Duty, one for Jeep Gladiator and the last for Dodge SRT performance vehicles—the crazy horsepower of the SRTs in “The Devil went down to Georgia” easily attracted more views and ‘thumb’s up’ votes than the other two ads.
The 2020 Gladiator video titled “Crusher” got some push-back from Jeep fans for its crusher scene where a mid-1960s Gladiator is shown getting unmercifully squeezed–or is it?
“Please tell me the crushing is all CG,” one viewer wrote. “Crushing any older Jeep is like killing a unicorn!”
Following the outcry, Jeep responded on YouTube with the following statement: “We feel you. However, the older Gladiator in the video was unsalvageable and was sourced via an online scrap sales site.”
In response, one viewer wrote: “Looked pretty complete and straight, whatever was wrong with it someone would have saved it. Shame it had to be crushed in some marketing exec’s big idea but business is business, it’s far from the last one out there. New Gladiator looks good, hope to see a regular or extended cab option come in the future.”
The 2019 Heavy Duty Ram ad, “Can’t Remember” takes a self-effacing, humorous and pensive approach. However, as of Wednesday morning that interesting attempt combined with Ram’s impressive, record-setting 1,000 foot pounds of torque, was still not enough to push the ad ahead of “The Devil went down to Georgia.”
Take a look below and judge for yourself.
Note: This story was updated from an earlier version which had not yet had confirmation from Jeep that a Gladiator pickup had actually been crushed during filming. Also, the 2019 Ram HD Ram ad has since pulled ahead in views over “Crusher.”
