Fiat 500 Abarth Commercial Featuring Charlie Sheen by David Brbaklic
  • March 1, 2012
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Charlie Sheen – the “ultimate” bad boy. Probably the guy you would put in a commercial to promote a product’s evil twin. That is what Doner and Richards Group, Chrysler’s two advertising agencies thought when they did a commercial for Fiat 500′s bad boy version – the pumped Abarth model. The commercial is called “House Arrest”, and it was first intended to be displayed at Super Bowl. However, as it was not ready in time, a sexier ad dubbed “Seduction”, featuring Catrinel Menghia – a Romanian super model, took its place. And it received extremely positive feedback before (obviously), so its success at Super Bowl was kind of a sure thing.

“It ["Seduction" ad] was born for the Abarth reveal at the L.A. Auto Show… We streamed the video live, it grew organically and achieved 1 million hits in less than a week. With all of the positive feedback that we received not only from consumers and dealers, ‘Seduction’ was the perfect choice for Super Bowl to generate brand awareness,” said Tim Kuniskis, Fiat’s Brand Manager for the U.S. market.

Fiat made sure that their extremely attractive ace up their sleeve, Catrinel, had a short appearance in the ad with Charlie, too. Take a look at the commercial after the break.

After making a ridiculous step shooting commercials with J.Lo for the regular 500 version, the guys at Fiat decided to rethink their strategy. Or have they? Okay the “Seduction” ad has some sort of a point. But Charlie Sheen? Come on. What’s makes his commercial different from the J.Lo ones? He’s also a cheesy celeb, whose peak of career is being known for the ability of snorting extraordinary amounts of the white substance and staying alive. Yes, his “Tiger Blood” mumbo-jumbo was pretty entertaining, but that was months ago. Furthermore, the commercial  follows a banal logic “we have a mean car – let’s hire a bad ass guy to promote it”, although they have received plenty of advice after the J.Lo fiasco to concentrate more on the car’s heritage – which it has plenty of. Some people never learn, do they? Strangely, poor advertising seems to do the trick, as the sales of Fiat 500 were up 69% in February, according to the company.

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BY David Brbaklic

Staff Writer

David Brbaklic
Jack of all trades, master of none. Enrolled in an architecture course at the Faculty of Architecture in Belgrade in 2009, has been introduced to a variety of fields ranging from art, graphic design and 3D visualization to architecture itself. Has been trying to figure out how to make them all work together since.
  • BrendaKilgour

    As this spot only appeared a few days ago, I don’t think the geniuses in Detroit can take credit for the sales turnaround.   This spot just continues the Chrysler tradition of dumbing down its brands to the lowest common denominator.  Women who had been considering the car will be turned off, and the 22-year-old parking valets who will get a charge out of this are still living in their parents’ house.  This car (and brand) will be gone from the US market in a couple of years unless Sergio and Olivier can somehow convince America’s drywall contractors that a Fiat-branded Ram pickup is just what they need to look chic and stand out from the crowd at the Sterling Heights Home Depot.

    • David Brbaklic

      @7cc6124d8fdcb1d6d3df8cfdd3655ce9:disqus I couldn’t agree more. But we should wait and see what happens. Maybe the critiques reach the “geniuses in Detroit” after all. 

      • BrendaKilgour

        Hmmm, between the gargantuan egos in Auburn Hills and the vanity of their toadies in Southfield, I don’t think there’s much self-evaluation going on.  All publicity is good publicity to this lot.