Chrysler May Bring Back Iacocca For Television Ads
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DaimlerChrysler AG’s Chrysler is trying to complete an agreement with a former Chrysler chairman, Lee Iacocca, to appear in commercials promoting the automaker’s offer of an employee discount to all buyers.
Actor Jason Alexander, who appeared in the television show “Seinfeld,” will also star in the commercials, uttering Mr. Iacocca’s line, “If you can find a better car, buy it,” Chrysler spokesman Mike Aberlich said. Mr. Iacocca used that line in 1980s TV commercials that helped rescue Chrysler from near bankruptcy.
“Unbelievable. It’s going to get them huge awareness,” said Jim Sanfilippo, executive vice president of Automotive Marketing Consultants Inc. in Warren, Mich. “Baby boomers buy half the cars in this country, and they’re going to remember Lee Iacocca.”
Chrysler on July 1 said it would match General Motors’ employee-discount incentives, which helped GM increase June domestic sales 47%. Chrysler is trying to extend seven straight quarters of American sales gains after DaimlerChrysler’s Mercedes-Benz unit in the first quarter lost money for the first time in 13 years. Ford said Tuesday it would also match the GM offer.
Mr. Iacocca, 80, is negotiating to be paid a fee now and an additional $1 for every Chrysler, Dodge, and Jeep vehicle sold from July 1 to December 31 to support the Iacocca Foundation for diabetes research, Chrysler spokesman Jason Vines said. He wouldn’t give the upfront amount. Mr. Iacocca’s wife Mary died of diabetes complications in 1983.
Mr. Vines, who said he used to write jokes for Mr. Iacocca when he was at Chrysler, said he called the former executive about noon on July 1 and got him to agree in principle to the campaign.
The commercials with Mr. Iacocca were filmed this past weekend in California and are ready to run as soon as a deal can be worked out, Mr. Aberlich said. Iacocca doesn’t repeat any of his old lines as he talks about the Auburn Hills, Mich.-based automaker’s employee-discount plan, the spokesman said.
Mr. Iacocca was Chrysler’s chairman from 1979 to 1992. DaimlerChrysler was formed by the 1998 acquisition of Chrysler by Daimler-Benz. He was also part of billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian’s unsuccessful hostile bid to buy Chrysler in 1995. Acrimony over his role in that episode has faded, Mr. Vines said.
