Eminem
may be cruising along, with a well-received video recently released for his latest song, but
the Super Bowl TV ad that the rapper made for Chrysler has become largely forgotten
just four years later.

The
“Top Super Bowl ads” lists that populate the Internet of late ignore the Chrysler spot
in favor of funny or silly entertainment spots hawking Doritos, Budweiser and
other food and beverages. (The New York Post’s list is one exception.)

While
favorite spots for the big game dating back to the 1980s show up on these media-generated
lists of the top 10 or top 20, the groundbreaking 2011 commercial that highlighted
the Chrysler 200 seems to have disappeared from memory outside of Metro
Detroit.

What
makes this trend all the more remarkable is that the Chrysler ad was a
sensation at the time. The stylish spot nearly blew up Twitter, led to a traffic surge at
Chrysler dealerships, generated a massive 661 percent increase in sales of the
Chrysler 200 over its predecessor, and won several top awards within the advertising industry.

At
two minutes in length, the ad offered artful scenes of Detroit’s gritty side,
with Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” pumping in the background as the narrator asks, “What
does a town that’s been to hell and back know about the finer things in life?”

In
addition to working wonders for Chrysler’s reputation and creating some
momentum for Eminem, the rapper who grew up in Warren, the ad’s “Imported From
Detroit” tagline became a favorite phrase on T-shirts.

Certainly
the commercial served as a sharp departure from the comical or sexual 30-second
spots that predictably dominate Super Bowl airtime each year. Yet, Apple’s 1984
commercial introducing the Macintosh computer — a dark piece of film that used
special effects for a mind-bending experience — remains on many of the “best
of” lists.

Why
is this?

It’s
a mystery to me.

 

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