Ford Sinks More Than $100 Million into New Ad Campaign

Ford Motor Company's banking on the success of the next Ford F-150 pickup truck, officially debuting September 4, 2003. Over $100 million is being spent on :30 commercials and print ads in an effort to keep the number one selling full-size pickup for the past 26 years on top.

Ford's breaking the campaign into two phases. Phase I is simply known as the "Tease Campaign." The script for the :60 launch commercial in the "Tease Campaign" reads, "A truck like this isn't built in a factory. It's built in the farms and the fields, on concrete streets and crowded construction sites that map the landscape of an entire country."

Phase II is titled "Earned the Right" and four commercials will air in rotation as the NFL regular seasons gets underway. One script from Phase II reads, "We didn’t just give the new Ford F-150 more horsepower. We gave it the most low-end torque. Why did we push farther than anyone else? So you could do more than anyone else. Only this truck earned the right to be the next F-150. If you haven’t looked at Ford lately, look again."

Ford's saturating the market with a heavy emphasis beginning on September 4 when you'll see a commercial in every ESPN televised football game. Execs expect 50-percent of the truck-buying audience will be hit in this initial ad blitz.

This is the biggest ad campaign for Ford Motor Company's Ford Division. The launch of the campaign also focuses on Hispanic, African-American and Asian-American consumers in a multicultural advertising effort. The $100 million ad campaign will be stretched out over six months.