Forget jeans, the mountain west, and construction sites.  Chrysler brands such as Dodge, Jeep, and Ram may have a slightly different look nowadays.  Chrysler has turned to Italy for its most recent re-branding campaign, leaving Fiat and its CMO in charge.  New marketing boss Olivier Francois has taken the reigns, and is putting a French- twist on Chrysler’s American branding.

Prior to the complete European invasion, it will take a couple years to generate Italian models of the Chrysler classics, Americans will be subjected to a more risque approach to advertising from Chrysler.  This began during the Super Bowl, with Dodge running an ad called “Man’s Last Stand.”  The ad has a rather sexist undertone, but drew plenty of laughs when it aired.  Having the voice over done by Michael C. Hall only helped its edgy appeal.

It’ll be interesting to see how Francois’ European approach will translate into the outdoors/muscle car branding traditionally used to market trucks and jeeps.  The initial reaction hasn’t been that great, as the Chrysler display at the Detroit Auto Show in January received less than stellar reviews.  Their cars were put on display as usual, with some help from scantily and sequin clothed models posing around them.  Francois says he’s just “doing what he knows from home,” but will it translate in the United States?

I understand why Francois is trying to duplicate his success overseas, but he’ll be walking a fine line using this approach for trucks and jeeps.  It’s unlikely the average Dodge Ram driver also enjoys sequins and French culture, and Francois could be taking a big risk by directly applying his approach.  However, I believe the “Man’s Last Stand” ad was a relatively safe step towards edginess for Chrysler.  I believe the most important thing for Chrysler, specifically its Jeep and Ram divisions, is to not try to be something they aren’t.  No matter how good the marketing is, you cannot take the ruggedness out of these products.

Sidenote:  This is all I could think about while writing this post.