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While it retains a US flavour to link to the Jeep?s heritage, the backgrounds were all hand-drawn in Australia and the composed music was recorded here by a live orchestra.
Warner Bros studios might be tempted to pursue Chrysler as hotly as Wile.
Warner Bros studios might be tempted to pursue Chrysler as hotly as Wile. E Coyote does the Road Runner – after seeing the carmaker’s latest Jeep ad campaign. Chrysler Australia has tap-danced down the tightrope of copyright contempt, turning the iconic Warner animation into a cheeky advertisement that starts running on Sunday.
There are some differences between the two – the most obvious being that while the Road Runner generally races around on smooth sand or bitumen, the Jeeps are trundling over a rock-strewn, potholed track that resembles Aussie road standards. In some cities, particularly. And in the ‘Off-Road Runner’ footage, instead of using the creature’s beep-beep call, the characters – somewhat wincingly – cry ‘Jeep-Jeep’.
But generally you could accuse them of having a bad case of Acme. But Chrysler Australia spokesman Jerry Stamoulis says a lot of thought was put into how it should be done and far they could go with the mimicry.
While it retains a US flavour to link to the Jeep’s heritage, the backgrounds were all hand-drawn in Australia and the composed music was recorded here by a live orchestra. “We wanted to get across the iconic image of Jeep, and do it in a way that paid homage to an equally iconic animation without simply copying it,” Stamoulis says. “We think it will have a strong resonance across a broad age group – you don’t need to be born in the 1950s to understand the references.”
And most people born after that time will know that one of Chrysler’s aims was to try and create something entertaining enough to go viral. “Obviously you want as many people as possible to see it, and if it takes off as a viral link or email, that’s great,” Stamoulis says.
“Over the past 12 months we’ve seen that happen with the ‘You Can Do It’ ad (featuring a Schwarzenegger caricature) … where people contacted us and asked for ring tones from it. It went viral and of course we’d like to see the same thing happen with this ad.”
