Chrysler's Ad Tells Consumers Its JEEP SUVs Are Special, Not Generic
My reading isn’t exactly up to date. Yesterday I came across this ad in the Sept. 17, 2007, issue of The New Yorker. The text reads:
“They invented ‘SUV’ because they can’t call them Jeep®.
“Jeep is a registered trademark. Good thing. No telling what kind of jacked-up station wagons they’d be trying to pass off as Jeep vehicles otherwise. Because sometime around the mid-80s, a craze took off. The era of the SUV was born. Fact is, we had them beat by a few decades. As soon as the mighty little Jeep vehicle came back from World War II, people discovered how much fun a utility vehicle could be. What made it perfect for the army made it perfect for having a picnic in the hills. Or a hunting trip. Or a snowy drive up to the cabin. And ever since, our vehicles have had a heritage of earning their name by getting the tires dirty and doing what comes naturally. Each is rugged enough, dependable enough, unstoppale enough, and agile enough to be a Jeep all-purpose, fun-making machine. When heading straight out into the unknown, it’s good to know you’re going there in a vehicle that’s been heading down that muddy road from the beginning. That’s Jeep 4x4. And that’s a heritage no ‘SUV’ can ever stake claim to.”
It’s interesting when companies use scarce advertising dollars to tell consumers not only to buy their products, but also to use their trademarks in the proper way. (See other STL posts on this subject from June 5, 2007 and Oct. 25, 2007.)
This ad does both quite well: “SUV is generic and not special. JEEP is not one of those ordinary SUVs. It denotes a special type of SUV, the original SUV, the one we make. It’s a difference worth taking note of. A difference worth paying for.”
Now, in the year since this ad was published, gas prices have spiked above $4 per gallon and SUVs have fallen out of favor. Chrysler, LLC, has bigger things to worry about than its well-known trademark becoming generic.
It remains to be seen whether Chrysler can address those bigger problems as effectively as I think it addresses this one.
Michael Atkins
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Reader Comments (4)
If you want to come down to it- Jeep didn't originate with Chrysler and we hold offense to them making an issue of it.
This website http://www.allthingsjeep.com/ does just that and yet claims no affiliation with Jeep, Chrysler LLC, etc.
I would like to be able to do something similar, but don't know where to start. Can someone please direct me to this information?
Larry
http://www.4-the-love-of-jeeps.com
That said, the term jeeping, which is a verbing of the brand has been around since I was born. People don't say they are going toyoting or willysing or scouting or SUVing. The closest synonym might be 4bying. Most often, people with SUVs go Jeeping and have for decades, making jeeping a generic term for four wheel drive excursions. I would suspect if someone went after Chrysler about this, they might have a strong case that the brand was genericized long ago (not that I have any interest in it happening, I just think it's interesting). It's an interesting discussion ... thanks for having it.
- Dave